Hi..

Hi.. Yup, if you are one of the few people that actually monitors my site, you've probably noticed I don't update my blog very often. The past post was almost 10 months ago, but I'll try to do better :) Not too much has changed over the last year, but I have added some new toys. For one, I bought a 1955 Chevy 210, and yes, it has it's own website -- http://www.sams55chevy.com. Other then that, still in my house and loving it... still single (but looking), and still working with and loving Linux.

Speaking of Linux some things have changed in that area. Last year Red Hat, who I've used for years, moved to a total Enterprise platform and dropped their freely available version. There's still a community project called Fedora Linux that has taken over the project, but I don't care much for it. I moved to Slackware shortly after and used it until about 3 weeks ago when I bought SuSE 9.1 Pro, which is now on my laptop and desktop computer. I love what SuSE offers, and I've found some great folks in irc.freenode.net/#suse.

Outside of the new OS, I've started playing with Qt3 and C++ to develop GUI apps for Linux. I figure I use Open Source Software so much, why not contribute. My first programs to write -- a bowling league score tracker and video/music catalog program. It'll be a while before learning enough of Qt and remembering my C++ to have anything productive... but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Another non-computer related hobby I'm starting to get into are ham radios. One of my most awesome friends Chris Erlanson has been in Ham radios for years, and I'm finally taking his advice and working toward my technician-class license. It'll take a few weeks to read through and memorize the questions, but maybe.. just maybe I'll have the license before summer's end.

Well that's it... in a nutshell that's my life over the last months. Oh, I've also gotten a webcam set back up, and yes, it runs PERFECTLY on Linux :) Click Webcam on the menu above.

Take care...

New House

Nothing new... I'm still trying to get stuff situated into the new house. It's been almost 7 months since moving in, and I still have my spare bedroom full of boxes of crap. Yes... Crap! But luckily I have plenty of closet space to get rid of it all in. I am looking forward to going though the old boxes from my parent's house. Finding things like my old cub scout hat and belt, old school work, computer magazines advertising New 486 systems for only $999. :) Funny stuff.

Future plans for the house... fix mailbox (my first attempt at replacing the damn thing is about to fall over), get everything put-up, expand patio and cover, then build a garage. After that, I'll be ready to remodel what I want in the house. Two garage plans I'm looking at - Garage 1 and Garage 2. With some help from family and friends, this shouldn't take long to put-up. Once this is all done, which I hope will be within a year or so... I'll be ready to remodel. WOOHOO!!

Hmmm, what else. Dang I have a boring life. LINUX AND DALLAS STARS RULE!!!

WOOHOO!! I've finally gotten Google Search added to my personal site.

WOOHOO!! I've finally gotten Google Search added to my personal site. I started searching for a way to do this earlier (while watching Star Trek VI), and I found some awesome resources on how to integrate the search via Google API, PHP, and Soap. Here's the link I used for the API's: http://phpclasses.promoxy.com/browse.html/package/920.html. The example3.php was the ticket, and all I had to do was integrate it into my web theme. About 30 minutes of learning the script and 30 minutes of PHP coding... and it's done. I have the Next 10 and Previous 10 setup, but I'd like to add 1.2.3.4.5... in between. One bummer is Google limits the total search to 10 entries per search. I generally pull 100 at a time. Oh well.

Other then that, not much else going. Oh, I did add a script to capture webcam shots every hour. Check out the webcam page and choose Archived Pics. I'm using WebCam32, and for some reason it has issues FTPing every 10 minutes or so... so some pics don't update properly. But this is cool when it works.

Whelp, time to clean a bit. My sister and family, Blak and family, and other friends are coming over tonight. Later.

I haven't updated my site in almost 10 months

I haven't updated my site in almost 10 months, so there's a lot to add. The most recent change was buying a new house with a pool. It's not a huge pool, but big enough for me and friends to hang-out in. Plus with 1.2 acres of land, mowing is a pain.. but it's mine. No Landlord, which is great.

The webpage is being updated slowely but surely. I finally have my webcam backup, but I need to do some more tweaking to make the overlayed text easier to read. Also, the new host has a problem reading my PHP includes, so I need to change my code to fix the bugs. If you get a 'Stream does not support....' error, ignore it. I'm working on getting these resolve. Oh, and I've added a newer message board. Check it out and post some messages while you're here.

As for computers, I've finally set-up a reseller's account at www.page-zone.com and I'm hoping to start doing web programming for folks. I'm working on getting the business in order and writing some canned code to create dynamic content for folks. M$project is to rewrite my work webpage - www.hillcrest.net - in PHP and MySQL. It's currently Cold Fusion and MS SQL on Windows... but shouldn't be too hard to rewrite it for Linux.

As for me personally, nothing has changed. I dated one girl earlier this year, but it was a long distance relationship that didn't work out. Oh well.

Well, that's it for now. I know my small life is probably not worthy of a webpage, but hopefully someone will find something here to keep them occupied for a few minutes. Take care. -- Sam

This is my first update to my website in almost 7 months

This is my first update to my website in almost 7 months, and many things have changed. The last post was when my grandfather died earlier this year, and that event has changed many aspects of life for the family. But all and all, things have finally started to get back to norm.

Outside of the family, I've started pursuing Linux more then ever before. I've been using Linux at home off and on for many years and switched exclusively to Linux several months ago without looking back. Other then some games I liked to play under Windows, Linux does everything I need and more. Some say Linux won't support their hardware, but if anything, it's easier to get hardware working under Linux. My digital camera, webcam, dual head video card, network card, video capture card, and flatbed scanner all work without needing downloaded drivers or applications. Also, Linux gives a much fuller Internet experience with a great interface. I couldn't ask for a better OS to use. Also, the Linux User Group has started taking off, which is great. We're finally getting a Linux presence in Waco. Check out our website - http://www.hotlug.com - which is hosted on a Linux box we installed at a LUG meeting.

Well, that's it for now. I know no one reads this site, but for those that accidently run across it, I'll try to keep things updated more. Later.

Some thoughts

It's been almost 2 weeks since my grandfather died, and things are still rough. We're converting the garage at my grandparents house into a room so my sister, brother-in-law, and kids can move in. It's still hard to believe that he's no longer here, but I'd rather be going through what we're going through now and have known him then never to have known him at all. I never knew my other grandfather, so I'm glad I got to know at least one.

Well, off to work.

Grandfather's Obituary

I just got back from the funeral. It was a great service with all the family and many friends, plus the preacher, Nathan Stone, was wonderful. Here's a quick link to his obituary.

Grandfather Passed Away

I haven't posted anything in quite some time, but with the events of the last week, I really need to vent some place. Yesterday I had to face something I never expected to, and it was the hardest thing I've ever done. My grandfather, who we call Caca (my sister was trying to say Papa, and that's what stuck), died yesterday around 3:00pm of bone cancer. It was a very sudden death which we were not expecting.

He went on kidney dialysis about 8 months ago with no apparent reason for the kidney shutdown. He was doing great until probably 3 weeks ago when he started getting sharp pains in his back. He'd already broken a rib while coughing, so the doctors admitted him after a dialysis treatment.

After over a week in the hospital, an MRI showed cancerous tumors all over his spine, and they were affraid it had spread throughout his body, which is what had happened. It had metastasized to a state to where they couldn't do anything but give him chemo for the pain. Our options were to continue chemo and dialysis or go on Hospice and quit dialysis, which we were told meant death in a week or two.
His condition went down hill very fast. I saw him Monday afternoon, and he was walking with some help. Wednesday morning he couldn't walk, but could talk fine. Wednesday afternoon I stopped by and he could hardly talk. Thursday (yesterday), he was virtually non-responsive. My grandmother decided to take him off dialysis and have Hospice give him whatever they could to make him comfortable.

He passed away yesterday afternoon surrounded by family and friends. He was pieceful and free of pain, which is what we wanted. We each had our chance to go in one at a time and say our goodbyes, which was literally the most painful thing I've ever done. He was awake and could hear us, but he couldn't respond.
We had a closed casket viewing this evening and will have the funeral in Waco tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 11am. He's being buried in Cedar Bayou (Baytown, Texas) Monday at 2pm, so we're driving up there either Sunday night or Monday morning.

Caca left behind both of his parents, yes they're still alive and live a great life in Silsbee, Texas, two brothers, Robbie and Herbert, one sister, Kelly, one daughter, Donna (my mom), three grandkids, Robin, David, and me, and two great-grandkids, Hunter and Caroline.

Since I'm a web programmer by profession and hobby, the best tribute I can think of is a website dedicated to my grandfather. With the wealth of knowledge we've gained over the years, I'm sure it'll grow into an extensive geneological site on the Muckleroy family, which is why I registered muckleroyfamily.com (muckleroy.com, net, and org were taken). I know I won't sleep much tonight, so I'll start on it now. It can be reached at http://www.muckleroyfamily.com. If you're part of this family or know of any Muckleroys, have them visit here and put in their word. There's not much here yet, and I'll be moving it to its own server soon, but until then, here it is.

Loaded from old blog

Windows XP, Is It Worth It?

Windows XP was officially released in October 25th, 2001 and was the most anticipated release of Windows yet. Some of the reasons Microsoft hyped this OS so much was it's "stability", "ease of use", and "improvement over previous versions of Windows". It has a flashy new interface, new functions and features, and out of the box is supposed to be an all-purpose operating system.

With that out of the way, let me start explaining why I think this new OS is crap in a fancy box. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice OS, but are the improvements really so big that it requires 1.5 Gigs of hard drive space, 128 megs of Ram for the OS alone, and a 400 Mhz processor to take full advantage of all its features? That's crazy… Microsoft makes it a point to create bloatware at every turn of the road.
Okay, now that my true feelings for this OS are on the table, let me mention some of the things I did like about it…

• For one, I like the ability to right-click on any file or folder and send it to the CDRW. This is a cool feature, but let me warn you, there is no audio support… only data. Another feature I like along these lines is ripping CD's, but you'd better get an WMA to MP3 converter because XP only writes in WMA format.
• I also like the Remote Administration feature. If you run into problems and need a friend to lend a hand, turn this on and shoot them an email. It works similar to PC Anywhere or sharing the desktop in Netmeeting (which I've done in the past to help friends).
• There are lots of added shortcut keys… like locking the desktop with Windows-L and Control-click Turn Off to shut the system down. These are time savers.
• Also, it's more secure then Windows 98 since it can use NTFS. You can secure folders on the system from snooping eyes. I must say that it's much easier to secure stuff on Windows 2000 then on XP from what I've seen.
• There's also some other stuff they added that's no good… like a 'personal firewall'. Get Zone Alarm or a Linksys router if you want a real one. There's also the Movie Maker program. This simply cuts and pastes video clips together. Get MGI's Videowave for a real video editor. It at least does wicked effects.

Now that I've touched on what I liked, here's some of the stuff I really don't care for.

• For one, what's up with the Fisher-Price interface? All the fancy bubbles and bright colors make me feel like I'm on a Mac. Luckily you can turn this off.
• Another thing I don't care for is all the "help" it tries to offer. When I try to change my network settings, I get a wizard. When I try to look for a network drive, I get a wizard. When I try to change my fax settings, I get a wizard. Heck, when I hit my caps lock key to log in, I get a bubble message telling me my caps lock is down. This is crazy. Do they think monkeys are running these things? They need something that on login asks if you're a dumb ass or not. If so, turn this stuff on and if not, leave it off.

On the technical side, I don't like the way XP eats up every available kilobyte of memory. I have a Pentium III-500 with 128 Megs of Ram runnin XP. This system came with Windows NT 4.0 and ran super fast out of the box. I upgraded to Windows 2000 Pro when it came out and lost a little performance, but it still ran great. Now that I have XP loaded, I'm hitting the page file just opening up Outlook after startup. What's with that? I'm having to upgrade my system to 512 Megs of Ram to just keep the darned thing running at a decent speed.

Your probably asking yourself "Why doesn't this dork just go back to Windows 2ooo Pro?". Well, good question. For one, I am one who likes to play with the latest because somewhere down the line I have to support it. Microsoft's game plan is to get everyone on the newest version of everything as soon as it comes out (which is usually every 6-12 months). Since Windows XP is now out, I'm soon expecting to see 2000 Pro no longer being offered on new desktops. Once that happens, we need to support XP, and what better way to learn it then to use it.

Bottom line is that on a buffed up system - P4 1 Ghz or higher with at least 512 Megs of Ram, XP will run well. And if you can turn off all the wizards, shortcuts, and download all the patches required to make your software to work, then it's worth playing with. But for me, I took it off my home PC and went back to 98 SE. At least my scanner, printer, compact flash card reader, and camera work with that "old operating system".
My suggestion for those of you who are considering an upgrade to XP? If you've got a very powerful system and lots of memory and drive space, go for it. Just make sure your peripherals have drivers for Windows XP and all your software works. If you have Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000 Pro and it works fine… stick with it. Other then some added perks (which you can get with add-on software), it's not worth the cost.

Sources:

• Personal Experience with installing XP on about a dozen systems and working with it for almost 4 months.
• System Requirements - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/evaluation/sysreqs.asp
• TechTV Product Review - http://www.techtv.com/products/software/story/0,23008,3356175,00.html
• More info on XP - http://www.zdnet.co.uk/reviews/rstories/0,3040,e7111217,00.html

Palm Vx Review

Well, a little over 2 years ago, I decided to take the leap and get a PDA (Personal Data Assistant). At the time, there were two popular types available: the Palm Pilot or Windows CE devices. Both variants did basically the same thing: keep track of calendar, tasks, email, and memos, sync with Outlook, and be portable. The only thing was that the CE Devices were color, played MP3's, and looked sharper.

After much debate, I saved my hard earned pennies and purchased an HP Jornada 430se. It was much thicker then a Palm Pilot (almost an inch thick), but it doubled as an MP3 player and had some nice perks. The problems were its bulky size, slow speed, and its tendency to lock-up (it wouldn't be Microsoft if it didn't do this).

I used it for about a year and boxed it. Now, 2 years later, I decided again to get a PDA. I'd setup many newer Pocket PC devices and many Palm Pilots, so I knew what was out there. After more debate, plus a great price after Thanksgiving, I decided on the Palm Vx. This isn't the newest model of Palms, but it's the thinnest Palm available and has the biggest screen. It also has 8 Megs of memory, which for a Palm is a lot.
After getting this little booger out of its package and connecting it to my desktop, Chapura's Pocket Mirror installed with no problems. Since I use Outlook XP, I chose Custom and didn't install the Expense or Palm Desktop components. In about 5 minutes, I was syncing and ready to go.

Thought I'd helped many users with their Palms, this was my first time to really play with one for an extended amount of time. The more I used this thing the more I liked it. Granted, the black text on grey background was a far cry from my old Jornada, but it was easier to read outside, its internal lithium ion batteries charged on its own and lasted forever (the Jornada 430 lasted maybe 1-2 hours at most), and it was very stable.
I immediately downloaded AvantGo and started syncing channels and off-line content. I also went to Mapquest and downloaded some maps to common-traveled places. Everything went smooth.

Beaming is also a synch. A co-worker and I beamed games and contacts back and forth between my Vx and his M100. This was much easier then the way Windows CE did it.

The first hitch I ran into was one Sunday when I pulled it out to check some dates, it acted very funky. The scroll buttons scrolled two pages at a time and it wouldn't turn off once I turned it on. The next day, I called Best Buy and they said they had no more in stock, so I started playing with it in hopes that I could resolve the issue myself. After tinkering with it, I found that the contrast button had become hung down. After unwegging this, all worked fine.

Another problem that might arise with Office XP users and Office 2000 users who have installed the latest security patches is that Outlook now thinks that eveything is a virus. Whenever you sync your Palm with Outlook, a nice window comes up asking your permission for it to sync. This makes network syncs impossible and requires you to be logged in, sitting at the console for a sync to take place. And if you compose an email on your Palm, a second window comes up asking if you really want this email to be sent on your behalf. These are great security features, but Microsoft has no way of turning them off. My solution was going back to Outlook 2000 with no security patches.

Some have asked me why I want with this Palm Pilot over the new M series. For the most part, I don't like the new series. They have smaller screens, some are made of plastic and feel too fragile, and they just don't look as sharp as the older series. Also, you can do virtually everything on the older ones that the new ones do with some software upgrades.

My suggestion when shopping for a Palm Pilot is not to rush out and purchase an M505 (the latest model). Since most of the Palm Pilots do virtually the same thing, I'd suggest an older model with a bigger screen. If you do need the features which the newer M series offer, I'd suggest getting an M105 or higher. The M100 only has 2 Megs of memory with no native email support. If you do decide to go with an older Palm, I'd avoid the Palms with only 2 megs of Ram, like the III and V (the IIIx and Vx have 8 megs of Ram). Also, the Palm VII has the wireless component and this is way too expensive for most users.

Other links

• Palm Vx Official Website - http://www.palm.com/products/palmvx/
  
• Datasheet on Palm Vx - PDF

New TV Antenna

Another day gone by... Flip and I spent the evening putting up a 120" antenna outside my window to hopefully pick-up UPN-21 and WB-33 from Dallas. After searching all over town for the right mounting brackets and getting the stupid thing up, it was after 10:30pm. And alas, the stupid thing doesn't pick up much better then my loop UHF antenna. I even got one of those signal boosters.

My project for this weekend will be to bump it up from 15 feet to 25 feet with guy wires to the roof. I just hope my landlord doesn't get pissed with all this stuff going up. Either way, I'm already about $150 in the hole after taking back the parts I didn't use. I'll keep posts on how this turns out. Later...

KAKW-62, the local WB/UPN network, has switched to Univision

Well, it's over a week into the new year.. can't believe it's already 2002. Anyway, the camera is back up. I had it down due to a flakey system, but it's back up. Another bummer is KAKW-62, the local WB/UPN network, has switched to Univision, a Spanish network. Both local cable providers already have this network, so what's the point?

Anyway, some friends and I contacted all the local cable providers and I posted messages on the newsgroups. The local paper got wind of this and interviewed us for a front page article. I have heard back from both cable providers and Road Runner is attempting to find other sources for UPN and WB, but Clearsource is not. I'm in the process of getting an outside antenna setup.

Site on Google and Yahoo

Just checked Google and my site is finally showing up there and in Yahoo. It only took three weeks to get posted... not too bad. I also checked my logs and found several hits from Google with people searching for me. That's kind of cool.

Well, it's Christmas Eve at 11:25pm

Well, it's Christmas Eve at 11:25pm and yes, I'm editing my website at home alone. Just left my dad's house where we had a wonderful evening with family and friends. I hope everyone out there has a great Christmas and safe New Years. I wonder what 2002 will bring and what new technologies will be around this time next year. Who knows, the standard PC might be a 4 GHz system with 2 Gigs of Ram and 100 Gigs of HD. Remember when instead of Giga, it was Mega?

Ever wonder what the Internet was like in its hay day?

Ever wonder what the Internet was like in its hay day? Ever heard of or used Tymnet or Telenet (no, not Telnet, but Telenet)? If not, then check out my new section called Text Library. This section contains text files I've collected over the years, many of which are on networking in the 1980's written in the 1980's. For network admins, these are great. Can you imagine paying $15,000 a year for 500Kbps? Hell, my cable modem at $39/month is three times faster then that. But that's what they paid in the early ninties and late eighties for bandwidth. If you want to learn more... check this new section out.

I've added many new items to the site this weekend

I've added many new items to the site this weekend. The first thing I've added is a Webcam - "The Sam Cam". Yes, his is a peak into the life of a total nerd who spends an average of 10-12 hours being bombarded by radiation and getting a monitor tan.

I've also finally added a counter to the bottem of each page. It's written in PHP and set to not bump up with ever refresh from the same IP. So hit that F5 all you want... it won't be fooled :).

Finally, I've got my Linux box reloaded. I was getting an error when starting xfs on my linux box with X Server. I did find a solution, but only after I attempted to reinstall the xfs RPM's and hosed KDE. Instead of trying to totally uninstall and reinstall X, I just did a reinstall of the OS. I also helped Tod get Linux RH 7.2 loaded on his PC. It's a 200, but SCREAMS!!!

First Post on New Site

Welcome to my site. For the most part, I'm a plain guy who enjoys computers, science fiction, books, and caffeine. Yes, I live on Jolt and Penguine Mints, but hey... everyone needs something. Anyway, enjoy what I've got and email if you want.