Still waiting

SIGH!, I am still waiting for my items to come in the mail in order to finish my HD Tower project. I have already tested with once hard drive since  I have one of those USB to EIDE cables and it seems to work very well and pretty fast too. Lets see how it does with 6 or 7 devices installed on the USB Bus.

I also have to design and build a soft switch to power it on and off. Right now I have to plug and unplug it.

Later

MacPhreak out

Part one of the HD Tower.

OK I figured what I need to do to activate the power supply. Basically momentarily connecting pin 6 to 3 on the power supply connector.

I ordered 6 USB to IDE/SATA cables and 2 x 7 port USB Hubs off of ebay. The price was great but the shipping cost was not so great. Should be getting  these things within the next 2 weeks.

Out of  the G4 there are things that can still be sold  for some decent money or at least to cover the cost of  this project. The RAM, Video Card, Modem, and  the most important one, the Sonnet  Encore G4/1000mhz Upgrade processor. The Motherboard I believe is fading away on a daily basis therefore will be trashed unless someone wants it for parts. Any Takers?

My Guess is that it will work well. however I am assuming it  might not be as fast as a real Hard Drive unit. 

I am wondering if I should install individual Power switches for each device. Considering there will be up to 6 ide/sata units installed that might be a good idea. One of those units is a DVD/RW that I would not be needing very often and only the 2 x 20gb HD's will be used regularly for backup purposes. 

Any way, once I get started I will take some pictures and try to document my progress.

MacPhreak out..............

New (used) Computer. What about the old one?

Well today I purchased a used white Intel iMac and got a great Deal on it too. But thats not our subject for today. This post is about my old G4/400 tower and what I will attempt to do with it.

Since  the raid and multi hard drive towers  are fairly expensive I will be turning a computer tower into a basic Hard Drive unit. No need for the motherboard but I will be using the  built in power supply to provide the Hard Drives with the juice they need. I will purchase a 7 port USB 2.o hub and some USB to IDE cables off of ebay in order to wire it all up. I really don't see why it wouldn't work. I will take pictures and post them when get started. It shouldn't cost more than $30 CDN from what I can tell and I have a bunch of Hard Drives I can use (and need to use since they are my artwork backup).

More Later

MacPhreak out

True Nature

Hey all, I just changed my blog name to reflect more of myself. As in the title pretty much describes me and what I am capable of. A few other titles came to mind like "making everything out of everything" or "making anything out of everything" but "Making everything out of nothing" seems like the one. It symbolizes to what degree people simply discard items that mean NOTHING to them that can be used to fix  or modify something else. 

As far as I can tell in todays society it is a lot easier to simply go out and buy what it is you need instead of thinking of an alternate way to use something you already have. I am not talking about making a new car or building a computer from scratch. Rather taking a dresser that has outlived its usefulness can be converted into another piece of furniture or combined with something else to save on space. 

Last year we took  my son's 2 dressers and a box-spring and created a captains bed. That is, the box-spring was dissembled to leave only the top layer, that top layer frame was mounted on the dressers on one side and the rest of the box-spring pieces were used to create the rear part of the support system. all this stuff we already had and therefore it cost us nothing to build it. Of course if you don't have tools then your gonna have to buy some but then these tools won't be  part of the cost on your next project. By the way, always respect your tools as they can be dangerous if used incorrectly. If you do not know how to use them get someone to show you.

My journeys have been mostly related to Radio Controlled cars but I have fixed and made things out of items that were headed for the trash and I will be posting more on this as I can get pictures and other info together to show you.

In the meantime in a challenge to you and myself I am asking you (the reader, if any) to take an item that you would normally toss out into the garbage and try to use it. At the same time letting me know what this item is and I will do the same as long as its something that I use as well and do not have to go out and purchase it.

MacPhreak out!

Used Computers and you!

Hey peeps, Just thought I would share my 2 cents on what seems to be some sort of epidemic in the used computer world.

I am currently shopping for a new/previously owned iMac and in my search found something to be a little disturbing. Individuals and companies selling used machines are trying to up the price of their sale by including pirated software. This means they are not including the serial numbers or the CD/dvd's of the original software and if you do not have the install disks then most likely the software is pirated. There are exceptions to this but in most cases it applies.

Maybe some people don't realize that they are buying pirated software but I am sure many buy knowingly. Now I am not one to say you cannot have this software on your machine nor will I spill the beans on people who do. 

My point here is why should I pay for something illegal when all I want is to buy a used machine for a decent price. In my searches I seen some machines priced the same or close to the same as a newer model because of the so called included software. One even had a list of applications so long and varied I wonder if there is even any room left on the 320 gig Hard drive not to mention the total cost of the pirated software to be between 30 000 to 50 000 $$$$. 

I think you get the point! Just be aware that if you buy the computer with pirated software your just as prosecutable as the person who pirated it. Unless you delete it once you get home. But that brings to mind my dilemma. Why pay for it in the first place if your just gonna delete it.

MacPhreak out.

"The Secret" What is it really all about?

In my humble opinion this is simply getting what you want out of life by means of proper focus and redirecting or reprogramming your brain. But how do we do that? The movie does not really tell us does it? Maybe that is why there is a book out there called "Secret Of The Secret".

To tell you the truth I have seen this in action, however I did not know it at the time. Here is my story proving the theory or presence of "The Secret". 

I will be omitting many details to keep this short but rest assured you will get enough details to realize this to be true. At around 9 years old my daughter was admitted into the Montreal Children's Hospital. After a few scans we were told she had a mass growing on her brain-stem. This obviously was a big shock to us but this story is not about us. She had a few operations, one of which was to remove the mass and that one lasted 12 hours. The doctors told us  that kids having had this operation have to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks minimum. 

Well during the entire ordeal the only thing my daughter would focus on was going home and being home on her birthday and sleeping in her bed. Well believe it or not, after one week the doctors told us we could go home. We were like  "WHAT?" how is that possible, "you told us  she would have to stay for about 3 weeks!". The Doctors then proceeded to mention that they were impressed and  had never seen such a fast recovery.

So, my daughter was home on her Birthday and is now 13 years old and according to her last exam she is in great health. 

But its not till last year, after having seen "The Secret"  dozens of times that we realized that she was using the secret to her full advantage. We had already been  putting some of  the ideas mentioned in the secret in motion before our realization and  some of the goals were focusing on are  bearing fruit.

For example, I was wanting a better paying job and whenever I found myself straying into negative and or fleeting thoughts I kept saying to myself, "I am well, I am healthy, I am wealthy".  Just a few months ago I was offered a job as a computer tech in a college but I liked my job where  I was  for multiple reasons. However the new offer was more money and the only drawback was I would have to travel at least 2 hours there and back. My current job was just around the corner and literally took me less than 5 minutes by car. So I spoke to my boss and now I have both, more money and  a job that is close by.

All of this is to say to you. Simply focus on YOU and YOUR goals and pay less attention to  the negative aspects. As mentioned in "The Secret", call up a consolidation organization and get your debt  all fixed up so you can focus on better things. They actually freed up over 200$ a month for us leaving us much more breathing room. Therefore letting us live a little better and feel much better about ourselves.

"I am well, I am healthy, I am wealthy"

This phrase I made up for myself.

I know or knew some people that complained relentlessly. I think I have this or my neck hurts or I  think I am depressed. Even then I would think to myself, your always sick and depressed because that's all you think about. Or you always have money problems  and failed relationships because your thinking is wrong. Heck, I just realized that I knew about The Secret even before I saw the DVD. I just didn't know how to use it to my advantage. A little while ago my son pointed ou to me that I was never sick (as in having a cold). A 6 year old had just shown me that The Secret works. Again, something I didn't know I was already doing. I have always told myself that I don't catch colds and flus and so on. Of course I still do but not as often as most.

So here it is, 

"I am well" - meaning I am not sick.

"I am healthy" - I don't have any diseases. 

"I am wealthy" - pertains to all aspects of wealth. Love, finances, health and more.

The one thing you all need to remember is it takes time. No one person is the same, has the same knowledge, the same thoughts, the same dreams and goals. Therefore the results are not the same for everyone. Nor is the timeframe for the results. If you have the knowledge then it would take you less time to  attain your goal as opposed to someone who has to acquire the knowledge prior to attaining the same said goal. This is what they mean by alignment. To get what you want you have to focus on what you want, this in turn will get you what you need or need to know in order to be aligned with what you want. Once you are aligned with what you want the goal will be there for the taking. Odd thing is, it may or may not be exactly what you thought it would be. It may come in an other form as in my better paying job was right where I was in the first place. I had always figured I would have to change jobs to get a better pay.

I know one thing for sure, if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten. So try it for yourself, what have you got to lose.

Well I think I will end this session here for now. If you have specific questions maybe I have an answer for you or even some insight as to where you can get what you need.

by the way

I AM A MONEY MAGNET!

Average Joe vs. the TV/Movie Star

The Stars:

I was checking out my Facebook yesterday (Dec 5^th 2008) and saw a friend (TV Celeb) saying that they were concerned about a show they were going to be doing the next day. Low and behold they received many comments of support, which is not a big deal and is kind of nice. However some of these comments were a little over the top in the way of brown nosing and I am sure some of these are really just sucking up so they can say they talk to a TV Celebrity on Facebook.

The next evening the show was done and over with and guess what, more comments of the same nature.  Granted this person knows a lot of stars (whom seldom seem to comment) and also many average Joe’s that always seem to comment.

The Average Joe:

The average Joe works about 40 hours a week, often takes home a paycheck that is close to or below the poverty level and yet he gets no praise aside from his family. There is no doubt in my mind that the Family factor is an important one and maybe that average Joe does not need to be validated but what if he was as praised as a star is. Would it change his outlook on his job and make him more productive? What if his boss(es) gave him praise and told him he was a great employee and gave him a raise. 

My questions here are, why do we praise people we barely know and ignore the average Joe’s right next to us? Do we think that if we praise the stars they will be our friends and validate our existence?

 Ask yourself these 2 questions.

How far would this star be willing to go to help you out?

How far would an average Joe be willing to go to help you out?

 

My bet would be on the average Joe. This is not to say that the stars are bad people. I just don’t think they would be around to hear you cry. YES I know, there are exceptions to the rule but there is probably some rules to the exception as well.

I wonder if subconsciously we feel that the stars owe us since we buy their movies and watch their shows and feel that we know them. But to them we are just an other face. Sure they love their fans but if I was a star I would too since fans are the ones that pay my bills, buy me a nice house and that BMW or Benz. 

Funny how this topic started out by me checking my Facebook. Maybe I will go back onto this subject later after I have given it more thought. Or maybe not since I am an average Joe and no really reads this crap!!!

Me

And my Online Store

Light Bulbs?

If  a light bulb is off does that make it a "Dark Bulb"? 

If I install a Dark Bulb in a lamp during the day and turn it on does it get dark?

Working Hard to Increase sales

I opened my CP Shop in 2006 with a few basic stores that showed a few sales and mildly took care of it. For about 1 year now I have been working hard on getting the quality and quantity or items up as well as marketing. For the most part I make happy faces, very special ones.

It took a while but I have seen a increase in sales because of it. This post I read on the CafePress forums has given me some insight and new ideas for marketing to use on top of those I have now. One of which is giving out T-shirts to friends that are always in public areas like a computer tech in a college and an other who is in a band that may be touring with Genesis (HOLY CRAP THATS A GOOD ONE). I even created a special private section for marketing with t-shirts that have a definite marketing edge that I purchase myself and give out. These ideas came to me when I really started focusing on my products. 

Like Zap said, Think outside the box. Look around and see who your friends are and what they do. Ask them if they would mind wearing one of your shirts or even if there is a special one they want that you can make for them but add your store link or name on it as well. Have some cool decals made up for your Car or truck if your on the road a lot.


I also have an external site that looks and feels just like my CP store.
MacPhreak
http://macphreak.com
http://cafepress.com/macphreak

Everywhere!

Hello again!  In my struggle to get noticed for my Happy faces I realized that I am  already in many places on the web. Blogspot (here) is one of them, My online store is an other then there is Facebook of course. There is also Twitter and the latest one is Teeblr. These are some of the most visited ones. There are a few that are less profitable but could also be mentioned of course. Spreadshirt is an other that I do make a few sales from. It is a bit more of a pain to use and setup but it does work.

Thing is, any and all of them can and are profitable if you keep adding content and making sure your content is of high quality. Want a million dollars? offer a million dollars worth to the world. In other words, offer a great product or service and the money will come.

Here goes a new post

Haven't posted a new blog in a while and i really should keep it going as it helps me think and come up with new ideas. 

I have made a few more sales in my online T-Shirt shop but also in other online shops that I keep as well. These other shops are not as elaborate as Cafepress but then again, Cafepress is just too easy to setup and use.

I have also started signing up for many many affiliate programs as well as building a site to promote affiliate programs, free stuff, contests and other goodies on. I found this affiliate to be quite interesting  because you can get many things onSale!

By the way, my new site also has information about getting started with affiliate programs.

More to come.

Later

Gonna start bloggin again

back soon, very sonn.

More Money $

Made another sale on Cafepress.

You can too! Come on in and give it a try.

Starting to Pay off No. 3

This would be my latest way to make some money online. it consists of writing articles about whatever subject you find on the site and maybe even some subjects that are not if they are worthwhile enough to create a new category for.

I am talking about a site called Helium. It is essentially a site of probably Thousands of articles about all subjects and when you write an article that is fairly well ranked you actually get some Money from it. Now it may only be pennies (could be much more) per article per month but if you have 100 articles then you can make some decent extra cash every month no? You can request money once you reach $25 or you can wait for a larger sum before you request it. Payment is made via Paypal.

Below is a link to all of my articles of you are interested.
http://www.helium.com/user/show_articles/269596

Starting to Pay off No.2

You may already heard of Google's "Adsense".  If not  it is a simple way to make money off of your site. It can be used in different ways and is placed on your website for people to click on. The first basic way is to have a banner with links that actually use the content of your site to match up it's links along the same subject lines. Have a look here for an example. If you look at the bottom where it says "ads by Google" You will notice that my site generally is about happy faces so the links tend to gravitate towrds that subject. And if you would prefer not to have similar links that may be from your competitors you can block those out. There are  other types of systems with adsense but I find this one to be the most profitable. But please go ahead and use  there other referals and links. Your site may be better suited for them so try. What do you have to lose?
Tomorrow I will talk a bit about Comission Junction

Starting to pay off?

In an effort to make more Money on the net I have found a few likely candidates. One of which I have been working on for  about 2 years now. This one is my t-shirt site for which I now have over 100 designs and for which money is starting to trickle in. Basically you create images and send them to this site, place them on their products and get a comission on the sale. It's actually easy money if you think about it and you set the commission percentage. I usually go with how much work was put into the image to determine how much it should fetch. If your curious have a look here.  But there is also a way to make some more money with this site. If I was to refer someone who opened a store of their own I would make a commission on their sales as well. And if a customer enters the site via my store and buys elsewhere, like in someone elses store, I make some money there too.

See my next post for the other candidates. 
I want to keep them separated so no one gets confused.

Webcam Prices...WTF?

What is up with the price of web cams? Seriously, think about it. There is no reason for them to be so expensive. Compare a web cam to a digital camera. They are essentially the same type of technology but one is of much lesser quality. A web cam generally has between .3 to 1.5 mega pixels and a digital cameras currently range anywhere from 4 to 12mp’s. Web cams are quite simple in design and construction whereas Digital cameras have menus and buttons and screens and high quality lenses and batteries and memory cards and so on. So this being said, how can a Web Cam that has 1.3 mp’s and a USB interface cost about the same as a 5mp Digital camera with all it’s gadgets? IT JUST MAKES SO SENSE TO ME.

Best Value for your trade in vehicle

This is my version of what you can do to prepare your car for getting the best trade in value possible.

read more | digg story

We are all normal and insane

I posted about this before  but this is a revision.

I am neither a scientists nor a psychologist but I have always wondered about the human intellect? My thoughts are mostly about what people do in relation to what they are thinking.

Of course what we ourselves do is never crazy. What we do for ourselves is completely sane, isn't it? WELL........in my honest opinion it is completely sane for one to do what they need to do and at the same time when viewed from an other perspective it is TOTALY nuts. So the question is. How do you know who is really nuts and who is sane.

"Insane" by psychological definition is to do the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Know any one like that? Guess we are all guilty of that at one point or another. But does that really make us insane? For me, it always comes back to the same question. I am insane to ask myself this question repeatedly?

A bird trapped in a building will continuously try to fly through a closed window until it dies trying to get out. Does that make it insane or desperate or is that the same thing? Does this mean that Desperation will make us do insane things?

What if the psychologists are the ones that are crazy, telling us what we are supposed to feel and what normal is. What really is normal? Is normal someone who is sedate and has no reaction to their surroundings or the extremist that overreacts for every little situation.
From what I can tell there is no normal. Normal is relative you who you are, what you have been through and how well you can cope with your current situations. For some that means destruction of ones self or others. For others it means complete retreat from everyday life. But again, which one is normal? My answer, we are all normal taking into consideration where and what we have been through. Unfortunately for the extremists this is not socially acceptable since they may hurt others with their version of normal.

Psychologists basically want you to conform to their version of normal but who says they are normal themselves? Is it that little piece of paper called a diploma? Who wrote that paper and are they normal too? The question never ends so I will end it here.


Thank you

Fuel Economy and your Driving!

It truly troubles me when I see a full size truck doing 150kmph(90mph). Only 2 things can come of this, one is you may have a nasty accident and the other is you will burn a LOT of fuel.

As far as fuel economy goes 4 cylinder Japanese car is usually the way to go. Don't go cheap on your 4 banger or you will regret it. The Rice burners are leaders in fuel economy and as such should be exploited.

Ask yourself if the car you are driving is what you need. Do you really need a large vehicle, could you make due with something smaller and more economic?

Here is a list of things to do in order to save fuel regardless of what you drive and in the process become a better driver.

1- Make sure you car is in order and clean. That means Air filter, fuel filter, oil changes, Tire pressure, Spark plugs and wires. There is more but these are the main ones.

2- Do not drive so fast. This means take off slower, and obey the speed limit. Most manual cars have a shift light to indicate when is the best time to shift, USE IT and keep the RPM’s as low as possible. I can easily shift below 3000 RPM and still have a decent take off speed. Remember, you’re not in a race.

3- Don't use your brakes so much. Often I notice people braking when they do not have to. Many times just letting go of the accelerator is enough, especially on the highway.

4- Coast whenever you can. If your driving and see a traffic light is red at a distance in front of you ease off the accelerator and coast to the traffic light. Often it will turn green before you get there and you won't even need to stop. This also has a bonus effect on the life of your brake pads.

5- If you can, take the back roads. I have noticed something in June of 2007 when I visited my brother. I took the highway there and drove at about 120kmph/75mph. On the way home I took the back roads or routes for which I could not really go more than 100kmph/62mph most of the time. Well I literally saw about 150km/90miles more on my trip meter on one tank full. The other option is not to go over the posted speed limit on the highway ( I know it’s hard).

6- Upgrading certain parts of you car to get better fuel burn can also improve efficiency and performance. A performance ignition system may do this for you. Any of those off the shelf toys that say they increase efficiency usually don't (watch myth busters).

7- Tires, those uber performance tires that are wider than you aunt Edna's ass will definitely cost you more in fuel. They do provide more traction but also more drag. The thinner the tire is the less drag it has. Go with the tire size that the manufacturer put on the car in the first place. It was designed to use them anyway.

8- Don’t do anything to change your cars aerodynamic shape. Almost anything you add to the car's exterior will increase the drag and weight therefore your fuel consumption will increase.

9- The estimated fuel economy on the window sticker of your new car gives you certain details as to how economical the car is supposed to be. What they don't tell you is that these ratings are based on a car doing 90kmph/55mph on the highway and 40kmph/25mph in the city (don't quote me on this one but I have read this on a few forums and sites). As for Hybrids, some savvy drivers can get just as good or even better economy than most hybrid cars, which is not to say Hybrids are bad.

10-DO NOT LEAVE YOU CAR IDLING! You car uses more gas when idling then you think so unless you have kids in the car during really cold weather then DON"T IDLE.

11-WALK! If you're just going to the store a few blocks away and you're in no hurry then why not walk there or even take a little bike ride? Besides, it’s good for you.

12-Take the bus or train (electric if possible). Commuter trains are a great way to get from the suburbs to the city and most of them will take you right downtown. This is great if your going shopping with family or friends and you don't have to worry about feeding the Parking meter every 2 hours.

That's it! Common sense mostly.



Thank you for reading………