Echo Binary

This is probably one of the best late christmas present out there. Wordpress 2.0 is now officially available.

Wordpress.org has been up and down erratically for several hours because the Wordpress team is current switching server. Don’t worry, within few hours the site will be stable again. I had a chance to download the official release just a minute before wordpress.org goes offline again. If you haven’t been there, the site has been redesigned. The new header of wordpress.org is similar to the one found in wordpress.com. The tiled background is gone and was replaced by a simple gray gradient from the top. I think that the new theme looks very simple without the tiled background. Perhaps I’m just used to the old design.

Anyway, I’ll be upgrading my blog very soon. I’ll do a couple of testing first in my local server. Don’t forget to read readme.html inside the zip / tar file because it includes the new install and upgrade guide.

Update: you may not notice it but under the hood I’m already running WP 2.0

Links:
Wordpress.org
Wordpress, blog, blogging

My graphics card nearly passed away today. I just discovered that its fan stopped spinning when I was doing a lot of Photoshop editing this morning. My computer just crashed and when I rebooted my PC, nVidia Forceware won’t load and my computer did not recognize my graphics card as it should be; It only showed as generic graphics card. Suspiciously, I opened my desktop case and inspected the GPU fan. Darn, it was stuffed with lots of dirt, virtually drying all the lubricant present in the small dynamo preventing it from spinning free.

Below are the techniques I used to rescue my graphics card fan. You may use similar methods if you encounter the same problem with your graphics card fan:

1. Pull out the graphics card from the motherboard and clean it using a soft brush (paint brush is fine, but not hair brush!)
2. Using an air compressor, get rid of all the remaining dirt around the heat sink of the GPU and the fan. If you don’t have an air compressor at home you may use canned compressed air. Alternatively you may use a vacuum cleaner set in reversed mode (FYI, there are vacuum cleaners that suck up and blow air simultaneously). You need to blow all the dusk away from the dynamo as much as possible. Practically you want to clean it first to avoid mixing dirt with your lubricant.
3. This is optional but recommended: Use WD-40 to spray on oxidized parts of the fan. It also protects it from rusting and dissolves all the dirt clogging the fan. You can buy this from Ace hardware. Take note: don’t spray WD-40 on the graphics card! What you need to spray on is the bearing of the fan at the center and the gunk of the blades. I also noticed that WD-40 will dry up easily as the graphics card heat up. As soon as I put the card back in my motherboard the fan gets noisy without proper lubrication.
4. Finally, oil the bearing of the fan with some light machine oil. It will hush the fan. Put it back in the motherboard, turn on your PC and watch the fan spin again.

This is a temporary solution only but as long as it extends the life of my graphics card fan I’m happy with it. If you are serious on replacing your graphics card fan don’t hesitate to buy a better one. Don’t forget to pair it with a good heat sink specially when you overclock.

Technorati Tags: graphics card, fan, WD-40

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! Within seven days, it would be another new year. Wow, that was fast…

Anyway, what is Christmas? I’m going to quote this beatiful message from a friend: It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.

I’ve been consistent in my wish every year and it’s always peace on earth.

Have a happy holiday!

I saw this picture from Kotaku.com. Rumors say that Sony would be using Japanese models for PS3 yet that model in the picture is Korean. I smell something fishy here.

I recognize the girl in the picture as The Girl from the Korean movie “The Sassy Girl”. Her name is Jeon Ji Hyun, a Korean actress/model. There’s a bigger picture here if you want to look closer. A quick search in Google Image reveals the unedited photo of Jeon Ji Hyun.

It seems that someone had cooked this picture up. I’m not sure if this is official but it looks cool.

Links:
Kotaku.com: PS3 Apparently Released Next Sept in Europe
Technorati Tags: Sony, PS3, Jeon Ji Hyun

As a big fan of Digg.com I’m very pleased that Digg Spy 2.0 was released. The new version includes new features and you can spy (in real-time) on all site-wide activity, all powered by AJAX auto update. It’s very useful if you don’t want to miss Digg updates.

How it works –
After loading, Spy automatically polls digg every few seconds for the latest site- wide activity. The Spy page is then updated via AJAX to show the latest happenings.

Choose what you want to spy on –
In the upper right corner of Spy are four checkboxes. These checkboxes represent the type of activities you can spy on:

The new page icon spies on newly submitted or promoted stories.
The thumbs up icon spies on newly dugg stories.
The thumbs down icon spies on stories as they are being buried/reported.
The message icon spies on new comments posted to a story.

If you deselect any of these icons Spy will stop looking for that type of activity. (Example: deselecting everything but comments (yellow icon) will only spy on new comments)

Digg Spy 2.0 also allows you to spy on different areas. By default you spy on all stories. You can also choose between queued stories and front page stories. Digg queue is the repository for all newly submitted stories so if you want to promote new Digg stories, “spy on queued stories” is your place. Selecting “spy on front page stories” display the current activities of stories promoted in frontpage only.

If stories are updating too fast, you may want to pause. Play and pause controls are located near the colored icons. The pause icon is too small and is easily forgotten by users so take note of that.

New to Digg? Here is a brief introduction from Digg website: Digg is a technology news website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. With digg, users submit stories for review, but rather than allow an editor to decide which stories go on the homepage, the users do.

Links:
Digg Spy: http://digg.com/spy [ Digg news ]
Digg Blog: Digg Spy 2.0 Released
Technorati Tags: Digg, Digg spy, AJAX