Owner: Inside the Mind of Jamie Starke URL:http://blog.jamiestarke.com Join Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:50:25 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Thoughts on technology, computers, and Life Site statistics:Click here
Improving Pagerank and Site Traffic 2007-07-29 09:02:37
After doing a series of research on the Search Engine Optimization, Page Rank, and increasing website traffic, I have tried a number of things in increasing the pagerank of our site, and improving the search engine optimization and pagerank of our sponsor, Student Geeks. After reading a a lot of information on the subject, I am experimenting with if using a domain name containing the keywords will increase its page rank. One of the highest searched topics in the area is calgary computer service. For that reason, I decided that Calgary Computer Service would be desirable keywords to have in the domain name. I was lucky enough to pick up calgarycomputerservice.ca. If it works, I will report on the results.
HCI: The Next Wave of Computing 2007-01-23 20:12:14
Have you ever been working away on your computer, and just thought to yourself, this just feels so artificial? Well, I know that I have. Lets face it, working with a mouse and a keyboard isn't exactly natural. That is why it is so hard for the older generation to be able to sit down at a computer and actually make things happen. Lets face it, the user interface for most operating systems is not intuitive at all. I know from personal experience, whenever my grandmother touches a computer, she always says "Its Backwards", you know, the scroll bar, you drag it down, and the words go up. It kind of makes sense. But that is where the old user interfaces are loosing ground. There has been some increadable work in HCI (Human Computer Interaction) in the last few years. The first time I came across this kind of HCI was through the TED (Technology, Education, Design Convention) videos. The talk that really caught my attention was the video from Jeff Han. He has quite a bit Read more:Computing
Microsoft's Latest Marketting ploy? 2006-12-28 22:15:45
So, I recently glanced at my Google Personalized Desktop, when something caught my eye. "Microsoft
Sends A Free Laptop With Windows Vista." I guess this is an old case of the Squeeky wheel gets the grease hey? Apparently, the way that this worked, was Bloggers that have been fairly vocal about the Upcoming Windows Vista were actually sent a Acer Ferari Laptop with an AMD 2x64 and Windows Vista. I guess the idea was, if they get "The proper hardware" then they will have a much better experience and their reviews on their blogs will reflect that. Then since they have experienced Windows Vista on an AMD powered laptop, it will help sales of AMD products as well.I have to say, from a marketting point of view, this is not a bad idea, as lets be honest here, most of the reviews of Windows Vista that I have heard lately haven't really been that great. Personally, I have been trying out Windows Vista since I got into the Consumer Preview Program back in June, up unt
U of C Renovations... Is this what people can expect from U of C Grads? 2006-08-03 14:07:05
Well, Its starting to turn out that perhaps taking spring and summer courses isn't all its cracked up to be. Not because their hard which they are. Not because there is a lot to learn in a short time, which there is. Not because you have to study your but off, which you do. But because the University has decided to undergo renovations in the Science Theatres Building, which unfortunately I'm in. Ofcourse, the registrar couldn't have planned ahead and not booked us in a building going renovations, dispite the fact that only a small percentage of the classrooms are being used. No they schedule us in one of the rooms, that is not only getting re-tiled at the entrance (which by the way is pointless, because the new tiles are the same color, and same model as the old tiles, just newer) but they have also decided that their going to redo the lights in that room.If that weren't bad enough, the guy that is running this renovation doesn't seem to know his ass from a hole in the gro Read more:Renovations
, people
Perhaps a sign of things to come 2006-08-02 07:17:00 I was reading the Calgary Herald yesterday, and there was an article called "Calgary house prices take a breather in July" that really caught my attention. The things
disgussed in this article seem to me like, well, Basic Economics. More supply, less demand, lower price. My sister was talking about the real estate market back in June, and had mentioned that other people in the know have started to use the word Bubble.My view has been that of basic economics for some time now. Realistically, I don't believe that everyone out there with a house for sale right now, is a good honest person, that is just looking to move up. More specifically, I feel that there are those that are looking to "invest" in real estate, and make money off the high demand, lower supply, and therefore inflated prices. I have heard of Real Estate Agents that own 14 houses and have them all for sale right now. Would those people have something to gain from an artificially high pri
Molson Canadian Revealed: Mobile 2006-07-27 20:31:28
Not that you can probably tell from the photo (which I took on my phone, since I was told to leave the camera at home), but I saw the band Mobile
last night, as part of MolsonCanadian
Rocks Revealed contest. And I will tell you one thing for sure, and that is that Molson really knows how to throw a party. I showed up late. Well, the doors opened at 7, but Melissa and I showed up just as The Waking Eyes were starting (And Melissa, if your reading this your right, I looked into it, and they did open for Collective Soul at Outlaws. That will teach me to question a woman). Don't get me wrong, it's not as if the waking eyes were bad, but I they just weren't all that great really. But I think their still trying to find their niche.I think one of the things that Molson did really right here, was that when I walked in the doors, after we signed all of the releases and everything, is the Molson Girls gave us tickets (or coupons) which were good for 2 beers, then they pointed us to wh
Creative Commons 2006-07-27 20:00:35 Aw yes, so after watching, yet another interesting video on Ze Frank, I realized that realistically, I have no copyrights or anything on any of my articles, photographs, videos...So I decided to take the same method that many people before me have taken, and that is to use the Creative Commons
Licenses.Specifically, I have decided on the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license.What this means for you. You can:copy, distribute, display, and perform the workmake derivative worksProvided:Attribution.
You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.Noncommercial.
You may not use this work for commercial purposes.Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon
this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license
identical to this one.For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.Any of these conditions can be waived if you get
Its that time of year again! Updated 2006-07-22 01:13:52
Well, its the most, wonderful time of the year.. Wait, who am I kidding. Its actually my least favourite time of year.That's right, it's Student Loan Application time again! I'm sure everybody can remember my previous experiences with Alberta Students Finance. It goes back to a little article called "Students Finance System says "Grab your Ankles"". Well, it wasn't so bad this time. I gave it reasonable expectations (of course slightly buffered, due to experience), and I actually got a reasonable reply for it. Of course, said reasonable reply made me almost defecate myself. Apparently it sounds like I am expecting $12000 in Student Loans this year. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. I think I am up to a total of like $15000 thus far in my education, and in a single semester, I'm going to Double it. Well, almost double it. Isn't that a little ridiculous. Ofcourse, my big question is, should I look into getting a new computer? Not that mine
The new look at Information Delivery 2006-07-21 10:53:00
So, by now I'm sure that I have informed many of you about the interesting and informative Zefrank.com .For those of you that I haven't, now is your turn. Zefrank.com is a website, managed by an individual named Ze Frank (no big surprise). One of the most well used parts of Ze Franks Website is The Show. The Show is a VLog (Video Blog) that has alot of Interesting Information, as well as the occasional Comic Relief from the Everyday troubles of life. For instance, The excerpt below was taken while Ze was over in Austria.the show with zefrank Read more:Delivery
Now this Physics sounds interesting 2006-07-12 16:41:46
I found an article when I was slashdotting today, and for the time that I was watching the video on the page, I actually understood why Physics
is really interesting
.Why couldn't you have told us about stuff like this Tamara.Don't worry if you don't fully understand what is going on in the film. Basically, it is about CERN, where they do many really interesting Physics Experiments far underground.
Update 2006-07-11 20:09:43 Hey everybody, as I'm sure you haven't noticed, there has been some updates to the backend of our blog system. Most of these have been summed up in an article on the Get In Our Heads Main Page. As the new system is up and running (and its a good thing too) I will likely have more time to blog coming soon. Keep your eyes out for new articles.Also, if your a vocal person in the Calgary Area, and are interested in getting a blog of your own, let us know. We're always looking for new and insightful members to add to our team. Read more:Update
Student Geeks Start Portal 2006-06-22 08:34:37
A while back I had decided to start working on a start page for StudentGeeks
. You know, one of those pages that people set as their homepage, and if gives them all kinds of wonderful things, like weather reports, news headlines, websearch. You know, all the things that people are really looking for the second they step out on the net.Well, I actually finished it the other day, after I got approved for the CBC Headlines system. Now the page is fully up and running. Check it out, let me know what you think, where it could use improvements, where it just plain sucks, and where its actually useful! I titled it Start
Your Window to the World. Is it a fitting name? Could it use a change?Please let me know any comments you have for improvements and modifications. Read more:Portal
He's one of Us 2006-06-17 17:20:14 Well, I was watching the beginning of the Oilers-Carolina Game 6, and during the national anthem, I have to say that I was proud.The started with the American National Anthem. You could hear the crowd singing along. When it got the Canadian national anthem, it was amazing. About 15 second in, the singer just held up his microphone, and let the crowd carry it on. It was amazing, the entire anthem went on without a stop. When they showed the audience, that is when I saw that he is infact one of us. Prime Minister Steven Harper was not in a private box, or in a sectioned off area, but he was right out in the middle of the crowd, like an average Canadian, enjoying our sport.Go Steven!
Things they are a changing 2006-06-16 19:27:38
Well, its been a while, currently, about a week and a day since I last blogged.
I'll tell you why. Our Sponsor, Student Geeks, which which I am affiliated, decided to change up the way that they did the hosting.
Well, it's not like I was surprised really, I mean I had recommended that might be the way to go, just because they would cut their webhosting costs in half, and I wouldn't need to do maintainance anymore. Yippee!
The company that I decided to go with is 1and1.There were many reasons for this. The features of their webservers supported the content management systems that we use (such as Serendipity, and Gallery). The price was pretty good for what you get. For instance, I got a package for $9.99 US a month, which gives up 100 GB of storage, and 1000 GB of Transfer. Lets face it, There was no way that we could get anywhere near that if we continued to host it on our own. Our internet package included 50 GB of transfer a month, and it was costing us about $29.95.
Adsense - YouTube 2007-12-13 21:26:23 I was checkin out my adsense stuff today, and I found out that the new Adsense
for YouTube
content was now available. Basically, you get yo make your own YouTube player, and pick the type of content that will be displayed there.Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com
Christmas List 2007 2007-11-03 20:23:29
Clothes- Pants: Waist 32 Leg 32- Hoodie: Zip up, color other then grey, MediumDVDs- Lost: Season 2 or 3- Family Guy: Season 6- Snatch: its a movie with Brad Pitt, not porn- Evan Almighty- Spider-Man 3- Ocean's Thirteen- Shrek the thirdElectronics- Wii?- Mario Galaxy- Mario Party 8- Wiimote and NunchuckMoney- Always helps!- Can be used to put towards books, or a new used car, or just making my life easier in general... Read more:Christmas
Hey Steve, why the Discrimination? 2007-10-03 18:09:40 I was on Facebook this afternoon and one of the flyers on the side caught my eye. It was saying that now I could get an iPhone in Canada! Ofcouse, it was some third party. What I found insane was that they wanted like $950 for them! Then I got to thinking, with the Canadian dollar soring like it is, I wonder how much the prices on the Apple Store have dropped lately. So I figured I'd check it out. I first went to the Canadian Apple Store and grabbed the link for the MacBook. I then open another tab, went to the US Apple Store and grabbed the link for the MacBook. I was a little shocked with what I found. The entry level MacBook on the Canadian Site was $1249, where as on the US Site it was $1099.This made me wonder, when the $1.003 USD = $1.000 CAD, why are we paying 13.6% More for the same stuff? Whats with the Descrimination? Does Steve
Jobs hate Canada? Read more:Discrimination
Canadian dollar up. Imported goods... Unchanged 2007-09-22 20:26:38
Ever feel that the local merchants are screwing you? Well, right now that would be true.At the time of the article, $1.00 CAD = $1.00 USD. But if you went to any retailers, you wouldn't know it. Most retailers still base their prices of the List price, which it seems, was made when $1.00 CAD = $0.80 USD, which it hasn't been since June 10, of 2005. Hell, even if we assume that the retailer boosts the price by an extra 5% to cover things like exchange rates, and shipping, the canadian dollar hasn't been worth $.85 USD since March 9, 2007. Lets look at a specific example. I am taking a computer science course at the University of Calgary. For this course, I have two text books. The University book store always says that they give you the best price, however, lets let the numbers speak for themselves. For my two text books, it would be $126.69. Sure, two text books for $130, doesn't sound so bad does it? Well, in the style of my 'Owed to Amazon' article, I checked what t Read more:Canadian
, goods
Owed to Amazon 2007-09-08 09:20:32
This year, I decided to try something a little different when ordering my books. I wanted to venture onto Amazon
, to see if I could save some money on my text books. This is the store of my experiences. As this was the first time I did this, I only got two of my textbooks through Amazon, as I didn't want to put all of my eggs in one basket. Meaning, if there was a problem, then I might be in big trouble.First off, here is the price comparison.Death March, Yourdon, 2nd Ed.Bookstore New Price: $49.99Bookstore Used Price: $37.50Amazon New Price: $31.49Refactoring: Improving the design of Existing Code, FowlerBookstore New Price: $74.99Bookstore Used Price: $56.25Amazon New Price: $47.24Ok, so getting both books new at the University bookstore, would cost $124.98. Getting both of them new through Amazon would cost $78.73. So, thats $46.25, I get to keep! Thats like a good night out, or a box set tv series!Ok, but what about the shipping?Well, any purchase over $39 qualifies for FR
University of Calgary launches emergency text messaging 2007-09-02 20:47:57
This year, the University
of Calgary
's big initiative will be to launch an emergency text message system. The system is designed to communicate with as many staff and students in the case of an emergency. The System was thought up in the light of the Virginia State masacre. Althought it can be extremely benefitial, I can also see there being some potential problems with the system. My big question is, what is considered an "Emergency"? Can we specify the level of "Emergency" we want to be notified about? There was a smilar, but somewhat slower system on campus for the last few years. With the old system, an email would be sent out to all of the staff and students of the campus in the case of any emergency. Of course, not everyone checks their email as frequently as I do (I currently have a notification for anything going to my main Gmail address). I also have any email from the University of Calgary forwarded to my cell phone immediately. Last year, I re
Video shows cars going in excess of 300 km/h 2007-08-15 07:04:43
I kept hearing on the news about some fancy cars that were driving at excessive speeds down country roads. I was reading about it on the CBC website. The article "RCMP investigate video showing cars hitting speeds of 300 km/h". Well, it took a bunch of work, but I managed to find the video. Apparently, the top speed that was hit by the group was 339 km/h. I happen to know that there is NO highway in Alberta (where the video was shot) that has a Maximum of more then 110 km/h, so this makes them approximately 230 km/h over the legal limit on Any road. Apparently, the video is designed as a promotional video for ZR Auto in Calgary. Ofcourse, now that the police are looking into the video, the story is that it was faked. By the sounds of CTV's article "Luxury cars speed past 200 km/hr on Alberta roads" depending on the evidence police are able to collect, charges could
range from a speeding offence to dangerous driving under the Criminal
Code, which could re
Serious Facebook Sourcecode leak 2007-08-12 09:11:50
It appears that in a server misconfiguration over the weekend, Facebook
released the frontpage source code for their website (Incase they get a takedown, I included the google cached location).So, what does this mean you may ask yourself? Well, that is a two fold answer. First off, this may make it easier for malicious users to try to take advantage of any security holes (access to private user info?). Second, lets face it, wen your getting sued by somebody, and their claiming that you are stealing their Intellectual Property (in this case, the source code), you have either made it REALLY hard or REALLY easy for them to get a court order demanding your source code. If there is any part of the code that is taken from their stuff, they'll have a really easy time proving cause when asking the court to temporarily shut down the site, and also subpoena the source code. Lets all hope for Facebooks sakes that they didn't just make a REALLY stupid move.And if nothing else, its an inter
I-35 Minneapolis Bridge Collapse 2007-08-02 17:15:18
I just had to comment on what a crazy situation this is. A major freeway over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis
, which collapsed. At this point, only 4 people are confirmed dead, however, that number is likely to increase quickly, as there is a number of vehicles that recovery efforts have been unable to recover as of yet. This is the best video I was able to find of the actual collapse. Somebody is gonna get sued over this, big time!
Business Time 2007-07-31 21:06:51
Ok, I know that I was planning on going on more of a professional and technical side, but I just couldn't help it. Today, I heard about a funny song from a group called "Flight of the Conchords". One of my colleges was showing me their video called Business
Time. For your viewing and listening pleasure, I have included their video.
Think your hard drive contents are safe? Think again 2008-02-22 10:12:30
Is your information secure? Many operating systems these days come with some type of a disk encryption system that protects the files on your hard drive
. But how secure is it? Studies have shown that in a lot of cases, these tools can be broken with little difficulty if the attacker has physical access to the computer. How can this be done? Well, if the computer is on, or in a hibernated state (when you open it, it immediately shows a password prompt) the encryption key is regularly stored in memory. If the power is cut, and specific software is used, the encryption key can usually be taken before it is lost from memory. Check out the information available at this site. Read more:hard drive
Wiimotes, So much more then a Wii Controller 2008-02-18 08:34:47
For those of you who are not familiar with the Wii
, its the new gaming system from Nintendo. Ok, not exactly new, its been out on the market for over a year now. One of the more revolutionary aspects of the Wii is the wii mote. It is equipped with a number of sensors to detect everything from motion, to pointing direction. A while ago I came across some interesting research by a fellow named Johnny Chung Lee. Some of the research that he is doing involved Wiimotes and how they can be used in different and innovative ways. These include things such as performing finger tracking to give different a new and innovative way to interact, using a wiimote to creative low-cost interactive white boards, and performing head tracking for Desktop Virtual Reality Displays Wii Remotes. I would hav
How do you deal with the Holidays? 2006-09-23 14:09:03
You know what makes me mad? Holidays
. Ya, I know, holidays are supposed to be one of those happy times of year where you get together with loved ones that you don't see most of the rest of the year, but it never really seems to work out that way. Especially when you have a significant other. I've been with my girlfriend, for almost 2 years. Well, by the time that Thanksgiving comes along, we will have been together for 2 years, and I love her with all my heart. What I don't love is the wonderful conflicts that I always seem to get into around the holidays.I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. The dreaded time when you've been invited to multiple dinners or events, that all seem to conveniently overlap and you have to 'Choose' which one to go to. Ya, I know, as Ze Frank alw
Using a Lexmark E210 shared from Windows XP with Mac OS X 2008-03-24 16:27:39
Today while having some free time, and getting sick of remote desktopping into my Windows
box to print things, I decided to take another stab at getting my Lexmark E210 to work with my Mac OS X Leopard laptop. Unfortunately, I found a long time ago that this printer had neither driver support from Lexmark, nor Apple. The page I found on how to Make A Lexmark E210 Printer work with Mac OS X detailed extremely well the steps for hooking this printer up via USB (and if you are looking at this for USB, go there now!).If on the other hand, if like me, your using a Lexmark E210 that is shared from a Windows Machine, these steps seemed to work for me.First off install the Samsung-GDI-Foomatic driver and the GPLGS (GPL GhostScript) both of which are available on that page.Second, install Gimp-
Using a Lexmark E210 shared from Windows XP with Mac OS X 2008-03-24 16:27:39
Today while having some free time, and getting sick of remote desktopping into my Windows
box to print things, I decided to take another stab at getting my Lexmark E210 to work with my Mac OS X Leopard laptop. Unfortunately, I found a long time ago that this printer had neither driver support from Lexmark, nor Apple. The page I found on how to Make A Lexmark E210 Printer work with Mac OS X detailed extremely well the steps for hooking this printer up via USB (and if you are looking at this for USB, go there now!).If on the other hand, if like me, your using a Lexmark E210 that is shared from a Windows Machine, these steps seemed to work for me.First off install the Samsung-GDI-Foomatic driver and the GPLGS (GPL GhostScript) both of which are available on that page.Second, install Gimp-
Think your hard drive contents are safe? Think again 2008-02-22 10:12:30
Is your information secure? Many operating systems these days come with some type of a disk encryption system that protects the files on your hard drive
. But how secure is it? Studies have shown that in a lot of cases, these tools can be broken with little difficulty if the attacker has physical access to the computer. How can this be done? Well, if the computer is on, or in a hibernated state (when you open it, it immediately shows a password prompt) the encryption key is regularly stored in memory. If the power is cut, and specific software is used, the encryption key can usually be taken before it is lost from memory. Check out the information available at this site. Read more:hard drive
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