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The Guild – Do You Wanna Date My Avatar

By
Edel Alon
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2

Ahh, the wonderful days of MUDD. I miss those countless hours of doing nothing but quests, gold, and spells. I’ve been following “The Guild” and as funny as it seems, it was reality for most of us…well, me…and a random group of users.

The Guild is a independent sitcom webisode about a group of online gamers. It is written for gamers, about gamers by a gamer. Episodes vary from 3-6 minutes in length, and follow the Guild members’ lives online and offline.

The Guild recently released a music video and mp3 for their hit song, “Do You Wanna Date My Avatar.” You’ll have to be the judge for yourself on that one. Personally, I like it. Mainly because my avatar dated my wife’s avatar. Opps, did my inner geek come out again?

What ever happened to my MUDD buddies?  I like how “The Guild” shows what can happen when the online world meets up in real life.  I crack up every time I watch “The Guild” because I’ve been there and done that with my online gaming friends.

I spent many hours on MUDDs.  I’m just glad I didn’t get into World of Warcraft or Everquest.  Watching this video makes me want to setup my Linux box just so I can setup a MUDD.

Amazon MP3
iTunes Video

watchtheguild

References:
http://watchtheguild.com
http://www.circlemud.org (Best MUDD ever)

Wind Turbines May Power Guam Green Energy Effort

By
Edel Alon
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0

Windmill

Guam could be home to four U.S. Navy windmills under a proposal by naval engineers on the island.

The $16 million proposal includes installing four turbines on Naval Magazine, a military base in the middle of the southern portion of the island.

They would generate an estimated 4 megawatts to help offset power use by other Navy facilities on Guam, according to Kevin Evans, the energy manager for Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas.

The effort would make a tiny dent in the Department of Defense’s electricity use on the island, which needed an average of about 41.5 megawatts of continuous power to keep the military running in June, including the Navy-run hospital and Andersen Air Force Base, according to Navy officials.

But it’s one of several options the Navy is looking at as it tries to add renewable energy to its arsenal in coming years.

“We’re a long ways before we get there,” Evans said last week during a phone interview. “But every little bit helps. We’re pursing all kinds of renewable energy.”

Money for the project has been applied for through the Department of Defense’s Energy Conservation Investment Program, meant to invest in energy savings at military bases. Evans said he expects to hear back within a few months about the windmill proposal.

Meanwhile, the Navy on Guam is laying solar-power membranes atop buildings and using solar-powered lights to brighten playgrounds, Evans said. Earlier this year, the Navy installed solar water heating at two locations, including at some barracks.

The engineers have plans to use rainwater to clean out kennels at a new military dog facility. And they are in the beginning stages of studying the feasibility of using geothermal power, he said.

Guam officials, too, are looking for ways to incorporate green energy into their grids, according to Simon Sanchez II, who chairs the island’s Consolidated Commission on Utilities.

Guam Power Authority has solicited bids to provide the grid with 80 megawatts of wind power, Sanchez said in an e-mail last week. So far, applicants have said they could provide no more than 50 megawatts. The bids are being reviewed, he said.

By Terri Weaver
Star and Stripes

References:
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64250

Potentially Defective Chinese Drywall Imported to Guam and Saipan

By
Edel Alon
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2

sheetrock

Potentially defective Chinese drywall was imported to Guam, Saipan and American Samoa. According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), more than 20,000 sheets of Chinese-made drywall made their way on to those islands in 2006.

For months now, we have reported on homeowner complaints regarding Chinese drywall. Gases emitted from the drywall are being blamed for significant property damage, including damage to HVAC systems, smoke detectors, electrical wiring, metal plumbing components, and other household appliances. These gases also produce a sulfurous odor, similar to fireworks or rotten eggs, that permeates homes, and cause metals, including air conditioning coils and even jewelry, to corrode.

According to the CPSC, consumers in 24 states have filed a total of 877 Chinese drywall complaints from the District of Columbia. Most complaints have come from Florida (658) and Louisiana (105). Other states with Chinese drywall reports include: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

In addition to the 6,211,200 sheets of Chinese drywall that were imported into the U.S., the CPSC has confirmed that an additional 28,778 sheets entered Guam, Saipan, and American Samoa during 2006.

According to the Saipan Tribune, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) has begun its own Chinese drywall investigation. “For the time being, consumers who have recently remodeled using drywall imported from China should be aware of and report noxious odors coming from drywall, the corrosion of metal objects in the home, and short-term health effects generally affecting the upper respiratory tract,” CNMI consumer counsel Mike Ernest told the Saipan Tribune.

The Chinese drywall epidemic has spawned scores of product liability lawsuits across the U.S. Six hundred of those cases have been consolidated in the Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2047) currently underway in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana. U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon is presiding over the litigation, and it is expected that the first Chinese drywall trials will begin before the end of the year.

References:
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/11777

Guitar Center: Fresh Cuts Vol. 4

By
Edel Alon
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0

Fresh Cuts Volume 4I finally picked up my copy of Guitar Center’s Fresh Cuts Vol. 4. Haven’t heard of Fresh Cuts? Fresh Cuts is a compilation of songs from Guitar Center employees along with a big band headliner. This round they have a song by Weezer called, “Everybody Go Away.”

I think it’s cool that Guitar Center has this opportunity for their employees to share their music. Plus they have a big band to back them up.  After importing it into iTunes it all shows up as rock but there are a couple of tracks that aren’t rock.  Now that I think about it, I’ve seen some CDs in Hot Topic that highlight their employees’ music.

I’ve listened to the whole CD now and I like the following:

  • In Search Of… by Tension Head
  • The New American Standard by Collin Kravis
  • Romeo and Juliet by The Lifeline
  • Way Down by Googutz
  • Back to the Past by William Wiegand
  • She’d Be Good For Me by Jason Cooper

The Weezer track is okay.  If I randomly played the CD without pinpointing the Weezer track I would of skipped it.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the CD is free at Guitar Center locations near you.

Disclaimer:
No, I do not work at Guitar Center.

Selling Your Craft

By
Edel Alon
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0

One of the things I’ve been doing a while is trying to sell the jewelry that I make at craft fairs.  It’s a tough market out there.  I think one of the reasons why is because the people who attend these events have a skill that can duplicate anything you do.

We’re all copy cats an when we see something we can do, we do it.  Or at least that’s my motto for jewelry.  I was reminded today of how I started this jewelry thing.  One day my wife and I were walking through some street fair and saw a vendor who was selling earrings that she wanted.  She asked for my opinion and I quickly stated, “Oh, I can make that.”  The rest is history.

University of Guam Scientists Successfully Compete for Research Grants

By
Edel Alon
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0

Coconut Rhinoceros BeetleResearch at WPTRC is as diverse as the agencies that fund the many projects geared toward protecting the environment, helping farmers and studying the ecosystems of the island and the region.

Greg Wiecko heads the WPTRC. “Dr. Wiecko has been urging his faculty to find new sources of external funds, and this year they have responded with this impressive list of funding agencies that are now supporting the WPTRC and its role in meeting UOG’s mission,” said Lee S. Yudin, Dean of the College of Natural and Applied Sciences.

The US Environmental Protection Agency is a new source of funding for WPTRC scientist Gadi Reddy. A chemical ecologist and entomologist, Dr. Reddy will seek to eliminate the use of toxic insecticides by developing ecologically sound and cost effective integrated pest management practices (IPM) for Guam farmers with a $50,000 EPA grant.

Dr. Reddy is working toward increasing ecological insect pest management on Guam through the application of semiochemicals with $60,000 in funding from the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program of the US Department of Agriculture.

WPTRC researchers have successfully tapped the support of several other USDA agencies to mitigate the threat of invasive species to endemic plants. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has awarded $30,000 in funding to Thomas Marler to study biocontrol issues for cycad aulacaspis scale and cycad blue butterfly. Entomologist Aubrey Moore has also received $223,995 in funding from USDA APHIS to address the devastation of Guam’s coconut trees due to the voracious appetite of the rhinoceros beetle.

USDA Forest Service has also funded Dr. Moore with $254,000 for coconut rhinoceros eradication efforts and they are providing $18,000 in support of Dr. Marler’s continued monitoring of ongoing activities for Guam’s threatened cycads.

In addition, USDA T-STAR (Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture Research) has recently awarded $120,318 to Marler, in collaboration with pollination biologist Irene Terry, for studies of the little known pollination process of Cycas micronesica.

In the agricultural arena, T-STAR is funding the research of Dr. George Wall, plant pathologist, in collaboration with Dr. D. Nandwani from the Northern Marianas College with a $162,856 award toward improving papaya cultivars from the Mariana Islands in their tolerance to papaya ringspot virus (PRV) and other important diseases.

rhinobeetle1Hui Gong, an aquaculture researcher with WPTRC, was awarded a $186,960 T-STAR grant for genetic variability studies of specific pathogen free (SPF) Pacific white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei. She has also received $60,000 in funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for a pioneering study of shrimp nutrition and genetics as well as monies from the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture for establishing a comprehensive and strategic health management scheme to protect the entire region from the introduction of viral pathogens to shrimp operations.

WPTRC scientists honor the UOG mission, “To Enlighten, to Discover, to Serve.”

Removing Spaces Linux/Mac

By
Edel Alon
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0

bash

I had a bunch of files I needed to upload to a web server.  The filenames contained spaces and we know some web browsers don’t like spaces.  There was this script I found on the web.  It worked out really well.

#!/bin/bash

ls > /tmp/list
# we have to make the list file in a separate
# directory so that it doesn’t get included
# in the list of the current directory!
mv /tmp/list ./list
cat list | tr ‘ ‘ ‘_’ > listnew
# this turns spaces into underscores
FILE_COUNT=$(wc -l list | awk ‘{print $1}’)
LOOP=1
while [ “$LOOP” -le “$FILE_COUNT” ]
do
AWKFEED=”FNR==”$LOOP
# the command to feed awk
# output will be ‘FNR==1’, ‘FNR==2’, ..
OLDFILE=$(awk $AWKFEED list)
NEWFILE=$(awk $AWKFEED listnew)
mv “$OLDFILE” “$NEWFILE”
# keep the quotes to make the shell read file
# names with spaces as one file
LOOP=$(($LOOP+1))
done

rm list
rm listnew

exit 0

To get this to work, create a file in the same directory. Change the mode to make sure the file is executable.

References:
http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_fix_linux_data_file_names_special_characters.htm

Les Paul Dead

By
Edel Alon
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0

This just came in from CNN.  Just when I thought of selling my son’s mini Les Paul.  Thanks for the music Les.

Les Paul, whose innovations with the electric guitar and studio technology made him one of the most important figures in recorded music, has died, according to a statement from his publicists. Paul was 94.

Paul died in White Plains, New York, from complications of severe pneumonia, according to the statement.

Paul was a guitar and electronics mastermind whose creations — such as multitrack recording, tape delay and the solid-body guitar that bears his name, the Gibson Les Paul — helped give rise to modern popular music, including rock ‘n’ roll. No slouch on the guitar himself, he continued playing at clubs into his 90s despite being hampered by arthritis.

“If you only have two fingers [to work with], you have to think, how will you play that chord?” he told CNN.com in a 2002 phone interview. “So you think of how to replace that chord with several notes, and it gives the illusion of sounding like a chord.”

Guitarists mourned the loss Thursday.

“Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed. He was the original guitar hero, and the kindest of souls,” said Joe Satriani in a statement. “Last October I joined him onstage at the Iridium club in [New York], and he was still shredding. He was and still is an inspiration to us all.” iReport.com: Do you play a Les Paul guitar?

“Les Paul was a shining example of how full one’s life can be, he was so vibrant and full of positive energy,” said Slash in a statement.

Lester William Polfuss was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915. Even as a child he showed an aptitude for tinkering, taking apart electric appliances to see what made them tick.

“I had to build it, make it and perfect it,” Paul said in 2002. He was nicknamed the “Wizard of Waukesha.”

In the 1930s and ’40s, he played with the bandleader Fred Waring and several big band singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and the Andrews Sisters, as well as with his own Les Paul Trio. In the early 1950s, he had a handful of huge hits with his then-wife, Mary Ford, such as “How High the Moon” and “Vaya Con Dios.”

His guitar style, heavily influenced by jazzman Django Reinhardt, featured lightning-quick runs and double-time rhythms. In 1948, after being involved in a severe car accident, he asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar-playing position.

Paul also credited Crosby for teaching him about timing, phrasing and preparation.

Continue

Globe Partners with IT&E to Serve Guam & Saipan

By
Edel Alon
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0

globe

Globe, the leader in providing services for Filipinos abroad, has recently formed a significant partnership with Guam-based IT&E, the only Filipino owned full-service telecommunications company serving the Mariana Islands, specifically Guam and Saipan.

The partnership shall provide product offerings that will enable IT&E subscribers in Guam & Saipan with more affordable ways to stay connected with their families and friends here in the country and for Globe subscribers to enjoy good rates when communicating to their loved ones who are IT&E subscribers in Guam or Saipan.

This partnership coincided with the launch of the newest offering of Globe and IT&E. ITXT is a text service that allows Globe Prepaid subscribers to text their loved ones in Guam or Saipan directly on their IT&E wireless phone for as low as P0.50/international text. The ITXT service comes in 2 packages.

ITXT25 (P25 for 25 International texts) valid for 5 days and ITXT 50 (P50 for 100 International texts) valid for 10 days.

“True to our promise of providing communication services for Filipinos everywhere, we have launched a partnership with IT&E that shall be offering products specifically developed for the needs of our fellow Kababayans in Guam and Saipan, this shall compliment our current Globe Kababayan IDD card offering in mainland US,” Globe Overseas Filipino Communities Head Alan Supnet said.

“With the growing Filipino population overseas who are in pursuit of a better life for their families here in the Philippines, we made sure that they remain connected with each other despite the distance. This is just the beginning of more tailored fit products and services that we will continue to offer in the future,” Supnet added.

Reposted from:
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/215778/globe-inks-partnership-with-ite-serve-guam-saipan-market

References:
http://www.globe.com.ph

A New Sound: Green For All

By
Edel Alon
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2

The dirty-energy economy has brought pollution and poverty to too many. But a clean-energy economy can bring opportunity, health, and wealth to struggling communities. Clean-energy jobs such as weatherizing homes, installing solar panels, and manufacturing wind turbines will put people to work in their own communities.

A new green economy will provide opportunity to people who have been left out of the old economy. That is the promise of Green For All.

Watch the video. Take Action. Share A New Sound with your friends and family.

Green For All is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy.  We work in collaboration with the business, government, labor, and grassroots communities to create and implement programs that increase quality jobs and opportunities in green industry – all while holding the most vulnerable people at the center of our agenda.

Van Jones

A clean energy economy will move America past some of our most pressing challenges.  By making us energy independent, it will improve our national and economic security.  By radically reducing pollution, it will improve the health of our families and neighborhoods, as well as repair our deteriorating atmosphere.  And by creating millions of quality jobs and careers, it will pull America out of the current recession, better protect us from future economic turmoil, and save lives here and abroad.

More than that, building a clean energy economy is a chance to reinvigorate and reinvest in the best part of the American dream: the idea that everyone gets a chance to succeed and be happy.  By ensuring that every community has equal access to the opportunity of the new economy, we can lift millions of people out of poverty.

References:
http://www.greenforall.org

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Welcome to the curated chaos of curiosity and creativity—brought to you by Edel Alon: maker, thinker, and hands-on problem-solver. This blog is part journal, part resource hub, and entirely dedicated to the art of doing. From culinary experiments and car tinkering to tech deep dives and DIY builds, you'll find stories, guides, reviews, and reflections designed to inspire, inform, and occasionally make you laugh (or at least raise an eyebrow). It's a celebration of learning by doing—with a few detours along the way.

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