The Ek’s Files

Jimbo Harris was good enough to tell me about his USB modification of my digital setting circles project. Jim found the FTDI TTL232R and was able to adapt his DSC interface to communicate via (and draw power from) the USB port.

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Well, I finally got around to updating my Digital Setting Circles web pages. Besides the New Look, the content has been updated a little bit, part numbers updated, etc. If you see any problems, be sure to post a comment here, okay?

Well, maybe, anyway…

Every time Microsoft releases a new operating system, I swear to myself that I’ll never run it. “Time for Linux,” I’d say to myself, and I even went so far a few years ago as to install Red Hat 7 on my desktop. But I really didn’t like it–it was not user-friendly. Or maybe I just didn’t have the patience to figure out how to get everything working. I consider myself a computer geek (maybe not an uber geek, though), but working with Red Hat was more frustration than fun.

So, now Microsoft has released Vista. By all accounts, it’s a resource pig and has no compelling advantages over XP (aside from the fact that it looks pretty cool). And remember the Apple commercial where the PC guy has the guy in the dark suit and sunglasses standing next to him issuing requests for permission to do this and that? Well, Vista’s just like that–at least when I was exposed to it.

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