Friendica is pretty cool so far. Need to do some more testing before I release the install on my server into the wild.

Apparently, RadioShack® no longer knows what a “radio shack” is supposed to be. Wikipedia lists Radio shacks as ‘a slang term for a room or structure for housing radio equipment.’ RadioShack® doesn’t even carry Radios anymore, Ham or otherwise. I don’t even think you can even get an FM Radio there now days, much less a radio scanner. I’m glad they got rid of the slogan “You got questions, we got answers” as usually for me it is “You got questions, we got blank stares”. It’s hard to find the right resistors lately at their stores. About half the stuff I look for they either no longer carry or are out of stock, and usually don’t refill it. Cell phones are what they push now days.

Best Buy® (or as I call it: BuyMore) sales people haven’t a clue. Or at least most of them. I was looking at Blu-Ray players a while back and a “sales associate” came up asking me if I needed help. I told him I was looking for Blu-Ray players that had wired ethernet, Netflix and hopefully Divx support. I don’t like running things wireless and I couldn’t get thru to him that wireless can be unstable. I was also looking for one with composite outputs so I could run it on my old non-digital CRT TV. He couldn’t fathom that I wanted to hook up a Blu-Ray player to my old TV. I know it won’t show up as HD on a non-HD TV, and I told him that. I want to build up my setup slowly and not jump in with both feet. He then started to try to get me to get a Best Buy credit card… ugh.

Android

I picked up a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) phone a few weeks ago. It came stock with Android 2.1. 2.2 was the newest at the time (2.3 was just released today), and of course AT&T/Samsung is being slow on releasing the update in the USA. There was a slowdown on the GPS, so I decided to root it and put in a 3rd-party patch. I filled up the phone’s primary storage when trying to over-write the files to fix the issue. This caused the phone to not boot-up properly. Luckily there was a how-to out on the Tubes to fix it. So I restored the phone after a few tries. I figured since I when as far as fixing the phone, I should be able to upgrade it to a community ROM of Android 2.2. I re-rooted the phone and installed a couple of apps. After downloading and putting the new ROM on the phone, I then rebooted the phone into it’s restore mode and loaded the new program to install the fresh RPM. This took about 4-5 minutes, a bit longer than I thought. I thought I hosed the phone again. Then it started talking. Told me it loaded the 1st & 2nd stage of the OS. It finally came up to Cognitive 2.2beta.
I’m loving the phone so far. The GPS could get its lock a bit faster, but, I’m still pleased with it. I got most of the apps I had on my iPhone 3gs. And some things that even the iPhone can’t do. I’ve got Python installed and will soon be making some scripts to do some home automation as soon as I get the hardware. The mobile wireless AP is nice too.

Twitter

I finally got WordPress to update Twitter. After fighting an authentication issue with the Dev site. I got WP to talk to oAuth. Posts should now be appearing on Twitter.

I installed a Minecraft server on Saturday at CGC Hobbies & LAN Center, so I bit-the-bullet and purchased an account on Minecraft.net. I’ve seen many people play it at CGC and I messed with ManicDigger a few weeks ago, so I went ahead and did it.

I logged on last night to test the connection to the server, and, the game was thrashing the heck out of my PC. It ate up 110-180% of my CPU for some reason (this is how Linux reports multiple cores). Took 512mb of my ram too (out of 1gb). CPU temp was the highest I’ve seen so far. My machine isn’t the most top-of-the-line computer, but, that’s a bit much. I wish they didn’t write this stuff in Java. Seems like every java app I’ve seen just kills computers.

The game is still a bit buggy, but still playable and very enjoyable.

I’d never think I’d say there’s too much to do, but, this month is crazy with geeky stuff going on in and around Arkansas.

Weekend of Oct 16

In Arkansas

• pyArkansas
• Central AR Model RR Club Open House
• Central AR Roller Derby Double Header
• Halloween Spookfest

Oct 23

• Burlesque On The Go-Go

Oct 28

• Rifftrax LIVE: House on Haunted Hill

Weekend of Oct 30

In Arkansas

• Conway AR Zombie Walk
• Little Rock Comic Con
• 1st Annual Syndicate Zombie walk

Outside of Arkansas

• Anime Karnival’s Tokyo Shop of Horrors (Memphis, TN)
• Oklacon (OK)
• Oni-Con (TX)

These events don’t count the last couple of weeks, there were many things going on then too.

All these events are from the Arkansas Geek Central event calendar. Make sure you check out the site as it’s constantly having events added.

War is coming.

The weather is really nice, so, I guess it’s time to go brave the Evil Day Star and do some fighting. Saturday, October 2, 2010 is the Nerf War. Bring your Nerf guns (and clones) to Laurel Park in Conway, AR at 10:00am.

Leave the Nerf swords, maces, etc at home. Only weapons compatible with Nerf ammo are allowed.

I’ll will be bringing my Lazer Tag guns along too. If it’s too windy we’ll switch to those.

I have re-enabled the Arkansas Geek Central Website. I also created a Facebook page and linked Identi.ca & Twitter to it as well. I’ve been posting like crazy on the website with all the upcoming events that I can find for Arkansas on the main page as well as the Calendar. Surrounding states aren’t being left out either. TN, MS, MO, TX, LA, and OK events are being added as I find them.

I have been taking a little break for about a week or so and should be wrapping it up after my trip to Tulsa, OK next week. I’ll be slowly getting back in to the geeky swing of things.

Here are some updates on a few of my projects:

ARKon & A2F

ARKon has been postponed until 2011. A new day has not yet been chosen. We feel by postponing the event, we can make a better convention experience for next year.

Since ARKon has been postponed, several of us are going to Arkansas Anime Festival in Fayetteville, AR on Nov 19-21. Usually the Fall event is bigger than the Spring con. We’re going to start planning this weekend for it.

Arkansas Geek Central (AGC)

Arkansas Geek Central will be making a comeback. I will be reworking it to make it flow a bit better. It will still be using WordPress, but, the Forums will not be coming back. There are plans for a better set of calendars. One for Arkansas based events, and another for surrounding states.

Kwadkades

The Kwadkades will be staying at Conway Gaming Center. The 3 standard cabinets (Mark I, II & IV) will be running regular arcade machines. Street Fighter II, Neo-Geo & Robocop will be the games/systems in those cabinets. Possibly this week Street Fighter II will be pay-to-play with some days set to free-play. The other 2 will be following when the coin-mechs get ordered and come in. I haven’t decided on what to do with the Mark III. This is mostly due to the monitor needing to be larger. Depending on my budget after my trip to Tulsa, I may see about getting a ~23″ LCD monitor for it.

I plan on building a small portable arcade machine running on Linux on a Beagleboard. I have not yet narrowed the game list yet. The games will either have to be Open Source or pre-compiled for the ARM processor.

The Stepmania and Vanguard Princess will be eventually making a comeback along with possibly another fighting game. I’m hoping to build some custom cabinets for these or using the Mark III.

id Software has released the source code to Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory under the GPL yesterday (Aug 12, 2010).

Links to the source code:

• Enemy Territory – ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/ET-GPL.zip
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Multiplayer) – ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/RTCW-MP-GPL.zip
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Single Player) – ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/source/RTCW-SP-GPL.zip

Now, if they’ll release the Doom 3 engine under the GPL like they’ve been promising for years.

I’ll be bringing 3 of the Kwadkades home this week. To make room for these, I’m getting rid of a bunch of computer parts, books, and misc other things that are in my way. I will also be getting rid of the Mark III Kwadkade cabinet as it’s too big & heavy for where I live now.

Here’s a few things I’m getting rid of if some one in interested:

Free:

• Guitar, Guitar stand and small amp (Free)
• Casio Keyboard Synth (Free)
• Misc computer parts: NICs, Motherboards & CPUs, Memory, Sound Cards, etc (Free)
• Misc older computer books (Free)
• more to come

If there’s no one interested in the Free Stuff, I’ll be putting them up on CraigsList and/or FreeCycle.

For Sale:

• Small Midi Keyboard (price not yet determined)
• Mics, Cables & Audio Mixing boards (price not yet determined)

If these aren’t sold before too long, they’re going up on Ebay.

I’ve shutdown several of my websites, mostly due to inactivity and lack of interest from other people.

• Arkansas Geek Central
• Central Arkansas Anime Group
• LazerTagChat.com
• Kwadrix.com
• LAN Party Admins of Arkansas
• ARLUG.org
• Ubuntu Team Arkansas
• Kwadnet
• Q3TCRP
• FlashMobLAN

Pretty much just have this website (Kwadroke.com/AEBates.com) and Kwadkade.com still running. I’m also stepping down from HSALUG & CARLUG. I am not leaving these groups due to a person or a group of people. I just feel I need a break and to remove some of the pressure I have placed on myself. There were some groups that did not have any outside input or involvement.
I have been contemplating this for a while and I doubt anyone will miss these groups or my involvement. In fact, I have a feeling most groups of the continuing groups will prosper from me stepping away.
It is possible I may return to some of these groups in the future. I very seriously doubt I will be taking a direct role in any of these.
I am also stepping away from working at Conway Gaming Center. I may be there occasionally as a gamer, but, not as anything official. Again, this is not due to anyone who owns CGC or works or is a customer there. I just need a break, and, I do not feel like I can contribute anything to help improve the store at this time.