Where have I been? o-O
Its been nearly a year since the last post on this site, so, I might as well do one now, right? I mean considering the fact I paid to have the domains renewed for another year, and its already been half a year since I've renewed one of them, its almost as if I've wasted half a year. 
So a lot, and I mean, A LOT has happened in the past year. I've gotten a job, lost a good bit of weight thanks to the job, got hooked onto a game called Minecraft, finally got around to getting my drivers permit at the age of 19, gotten hooked onto mechanical keyboards, and a bunch of computer upgrades! Of course the computer upgrades are always fun. 
So I guess to start off, I got a job at UPS over peak season, starting out on the Ramp as thats where they needed people during peak. That was fine up until they hired me on after peak, at which point they would have required me to have my license, which, at the time, I did not have, so they instead move me into the hub in Small Sort. BUt, having that job during peak had allowed me to do a a few upgrades to my PC. I had upgraded to a Phenom II x4 925, an ATI Radeon HD5750, and also got a new 520W Seasonic Power Supply.
I might as well go into some of the other upgrades I've gotten throughout the past year as well. I've finally gone to 8GB of Kingston RAM. Was going to go for 8GB of Patriot, but, I couldn't find a single matching kit to what I had, so I said hell with it and sold the 4GB kit I had, and bought an 8GB kit of Kingston. I also got myself a 1TB Hitachi hard drive to go along with the 500GB WD Caviar Black that is in my system, because I felt like I needed to get more storage. I replaced the optical drive due to that was giving me issues, had to replace both my 120mm case fans, and I am now buying a new case in the upcoming week so I could throw a larger CPU cooler into my system.
Now onto the subject of Mechanical keyboards. After having played with a mechanical keyboard somewhere, I really enjoyed the feeling of typing on one so I decided to start looking for an IBM Model M. First off I ordered a Model M off of eBay, with the seller neglecting to tell in the description that it was the rubber dome version of it, but that was still a strong keyboard.Then in March I went to a Hamfest in Southern Kentucky with one of my friends, and out of the corner of my eye at one of the booths I had seen two IBM Model Ms. They were the Silver Square logo Model M's, with no indicator LEDs, both manufactured in early 1986. I have been using them since I have gotten them and they are amazing to type on. Since then I have also acquired a Dell AT101W, which uses Black Alp Sliders, which aren't as tactile, but nice as a backup keyboard.
I guess thats enough rambling on for now, isn't it? I'll probably be posting more, especially now that I got around to updating WordPress. OH! I also do plan on getting a new computer case at some point soon, so expect to see pictures of a new case up soon, PLUS a review of it. Probably sometime not this week, but next week as I can't order one till Friday. Thanks for reading, if anybody even bothers to check anymore.
- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)
New Random Blog Post, Updates, etc.
Ok, I apologize for not keeping up with my promise last month. Summer started to drag on, I had a cold for the first week and a half of June, etc. etc. So anyway, its July 1st, new month, and I figured, time for a new blog post.
So in the past month I've probably used Ubuntu 10.04 95% of the time, and Windows Vista about 5% of the time. So, I'm definitely using Linux hell of a lot more than I have in the past, which is definitely a good thing! Yes, I have gotten used to the buttons being on the left side of the titlebar, and even Ubuntu's new Ambiance Theme (although I changed it to something else eventually anyway).
So, around a week and a half ago I decided to order a new 500GB HDD. I wasn't running dangerously low on space, but I figured I might as well order one just to have the extra space, have one nice really large drive, and for performance too (the 32MB of cache is pretty nice). The drive I ordered was a 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black. Absolutely amazing drive. Boots up into Ubuntu 10.04 much quicker than the 40GB I previous had Ubuntu on. And just to bring it, my previous drive configuration was 1x120GB for Vista, 1x80GB for Storage, and 1x40GB for Ubuntu 10.04. Now its 1x500GB for Ubuntu, 1x120GB for Vista, and 1x80GB for Storage. I'll include the unboxing video of the HDD below. I gave the 40GB SATA to my younger brother to use as an extra drive, which brings up the next topic.
My younger brother having had suffered 2 months on a A8N-SLI board (after trading motherboards with my other younger brother) which wouldn't work with his video card or Processor correctly (it detected his Socket 939 Athlon x2 as a Single Core), he finally got a new motherboard/CPU with 3GB of DDR2 RAM included. He's now finally able to use his 512MB 8600GT again, and his new CPU is an Athlon II x3 CPU at 2.7GHhz. Of course, because that boards only IDE channel would have been taken up by his Optical Drive, we had to order ANOTHER 500GB Western Digital Caviar Black drive. The pure fact that it was on sale AGAIN when we realized he needed another drive was some pretty good luck, otherwise we would have had to go with a 320GB or 250GB drive instead. But basically we set up a dual-boot on his system w/ XP and 7, plus a partition to store games. My youngest brother also got an upgrade out of this, including an upgrade to 2.5GB of RAM, Socket 939 Athlon x2 2.4GHz, and an extra 80GB IDE HDD.
Another thing I would like to mention is I have an extra Pentium D + a Board laying around I am actually considering doing something with. I just need to get a case, HDD, an optical drive for it (and maybe just a little bit more RAM). What I was thinking is I could possibly set that up to do videos on AND I will also probably use that as a machine to setup and do distribution testing and reviews on.
Anyway, I did mention I was getting used to Ubuntu's Ambiance Theme, well, thats when I decided to install the Elementary Theme Package, including The Elementary Modification of GNOME's File Manager Nautilus. I absolutely love this theme, and its actually going to be the Default theme of a Ubuntu-based distribution coming out called "Elementary OS". I think I might do a review on that in the future. That, along w/ Installing the AWN Dock, and using GNOME-DO, I can definitely say this UI is heck of a lot better than Window's UI.
So to continue on with my aimless rambling (is it really aimless?), while I kind of didn't go through with my blog every day in June, I definitely plan on doing more blog posts this month. I have been messing around with some pretty interesting software packages lately, mostly ones I found via Ubuntu's Software manager, that I would probably like to talk about, including an application I'm using to type this blog post in right now. So thats what I might focus my blog posts on in the next week, and I might even include videos. So, I would recommend keeping your eyes glued to this blog.
Anyway, thanks for reading this rambling blog post just updating a few things. Please subscribe to my Blog so you can keep on reading the next series of posts reviewing certain pieces of software, and I would definitely love some Constructive Feedback/Criticism in the comments section.
~ Tyler J. Brown
Graduation and couple other things
Today, Wednesday June 2nd, 2010, was my graduation from High School as part of the Pleasure Ridge Park Class of 2010! 
After 4 years of being at the school, I can't believe that its all over. Got my Diploma Today, and its just wow. Graduation was great, although after it was over my ride wanted to rush me out of there so I didn't get a chance to talk to a couple of my favorite teachers that were there. In the process of rushing out the door, it took us 20 minutes to find our car as we forgot where we parked.
After graduation, we went straight home, but didn't stay there long. Probably about 15-20 minutes before we left and headed out to Golden Carrol for Lunch. Had a few plates of food, mainly the Roast Beef with some potatoes, and some dessert.
Sooo..... now that I'm done with High School, got my Diploma, etc. What am I going to do now? Well, considering I'm coming down with a cold, I'm probably going to rest for a day or two. I may end up having a graduation party, and I will probably end up going to those of a few friends as well over the weekend. Starting next week, I will definitely start looking towards getting a job. I have a couple places in mind that I'm seriously considering. This fall I will go to Jefferson Community College to start off my first two years of college, and I also plan on taking the test for my Network+ Certification this Fall (After studying over the Summer).
And yeah, Todays post was out a little later as well. However, Today was also one hectic of a day. I was barely on the computer until later in the day. With graduation, eating out, spending time with family, I definitely bugged a few people that felt like I was ignoring their messages, whether it be on any IM service I'm on or through IRC. Thanks for reading this short post, and check back tomorrow for another, hopefully tech related, blog post. And don't forget to subscribe using services or software like Google Reader, Thunderbird, in-browser RSS readers that are built into browsers such as Firefox or Opera, etc.
- Tyler Joseph Brown (Condoulo)
PRP Class of 2010 Graduate!
Blog Post for every day in June? And other things.
Ok, it is the last day in May, and its been about a week since I've done a blog post. Well, I think I'm going to challenge myself, I am going to (attempt) to do a new blog post for every day in the month of June, starting tomorrow. I think it will be interesting, and the topics will go over a range of subjects. So, keep your eyes open.
So far I've made it two weeks without booting into Vista. Pretty good accomplishment, of course. 
hehe. Of course, I haven't watched Hulu in a couple weeks, since Flash for Linux is still crappy, and would probably perform like crap when full-screen. So when I get a PC to use as a Media-center, I'll probably use Windows on it for that purpose. Otherwise, I have no other reason to boot into Windows. I'm not much of a gamer, I found a Ventrilo client for Linux that actually works called Mangler (Which I'll blog about in a later post), I'm having no performance issues, etc.
I have yet to setup Zen Walk on the Pentium 4 HT, just been kind of busy/crazy lately. Hopefully I'll be able to do that later this week and blog about it.
So in terms of whats going on in my life? Tomorrow, June 1st, I will have Graduation practice. I can't believe I've made it to this point, and I can't wait for graduation which will be this Wednesday on June 2nd. Last Tuesday I took the Second A+ Exam and passed it, meaning I am now A+ Certified (Although it took CompTIA Nearly a week to process it and send me a confirmation e-mail). I'm still waiting for the Strata certificate for the Strata Exam I took and passed over a month ago, which they're sending via Snail-mail. hehe.
Starting after graduation I'll definitely start looking for a job. I mean, I need a way to pay for all the computer upgrades I want to do. That, and I need to find a way to pay for school this fall, as well as many other things. I already have a couple places in mind that I will be applying to.
Anyway, be sure to look for a new blog post tomorrow. Don't forget to subscribe to this blog, and make constructive comments on this and my other posts! And don't be afraid to provide constructive criticism too. Anyway, thanks for reading!
- Tyler J. Brown (Condoulo)
First month of new year
I guess there is no rhyme or reason to this post either, I just feel like making a new blog post.
I was just randomly thinking, the first month of the year is already over, of the new decade too. Its real hard to believe how much has changed just in the past month in terms of what I do online, and how I do things. I'm also thinking of the changes that will be occurring in the next 11 months as well.
So, lets just start off with the changes that have occurred in just the past month, which has gone by way too fast. To start off, the Downstairs furnace we had failed. Since then we've been trying heat at least the main areas of the main floor with 3 to 4 different space heaters, which has been a real pain due to the Harsh winter we've been experiencing in the past month (with a nice little break of warm weather in between).
I also decided to take a leave from McInTEC at the beginning of the month, and pretty much had decided to leave at this point. I guess this is my official announcement on my blog of me leaving McInTEC? I won't go into the detail for the reasons why, but, I just felt things weren't really the same anymore. Just didn't feel like a "community" as it used to.
In the past month I've also been trying to bring a few people together to come up with ideas for a community project. In the end we decided to work with Dallin on creating a part of GeekLoop focused around the community. Theres more information here. If you want to do more to help, stop by #GeekLoop on GeekShed.
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I have finally gotten a dual monitor setup! I absolutely love the fact that I can do so much more with a dual monitor setup, and I don't think I'll go back to a single-monitor setup, at all.
So with the first month of 2010 nearly gone, what changes lie ahead? Well, I plan on getting my A+ certification in the next couple weeks! On February 5th Portfolios are due, and February 12th marks the end of the Second trimester of my Senior Year. On the 26th of March I will be turning 18, which will definitely open up a lot of opportunities for me. And of course, in May in graduation and I hope to get a job in late May or early June.
I guess when I try to do posts I don't do many personal blog posts, but I really think I should plan on doing more personal posts in the future. I guess its just something I really ought to do. However, I also should start doing more technology posts and opinion posts as well, just to keep things interesting. Got any suggestions on what I should possibly do a video or blog post on? Leave a comment below and I'll see what I can do. Anyway, thanks for reading.
- Tyler
P.S. Just a little extra edit before I publish this, I would like to encourage you all to check out Constant-Hosting if you need a host for your web site, blog, or whatever!