I have been playing around a lot with Google+ lately. I know, I
know, you are saying "You are just now getting into Google+, you are
such a technological visionary.......not" Be nice! I am a busy guy.
OK, OK, no more excuses. On to the Google+ post.....
I guess it is touted as the perfect mix between Twitter
and Facebook. I have to admit that I don't know either one of those
very well, but I have been learning Google+ over the last several days.
I must say, I really like it!
First, if you are not
familiar with Google+, it is a social networking application that is
based on groups called circles. You can create all kinds of circles to
follow people. For example, I have some circles called Family, Friends,
Photographers, Photoshop, and Bloggers. I can add different people to
each of these circles and follow their work. If they feel like they
want to see my posts, they can add me to one of their circles.
The main reasons why I like Google+ are because you can
add people to your circles that have similar interests. In other words,
you can follow people that you don't even know, but may be an authority
on something you are really passionate about. For example, I love
photography, so I have added several photographers to my photography
circle so I can follow their work. There are some amazing photographs
on Google+. The beauty of the circle concept is that I can send only my
photography related content to my photography circle, or only my jokes
to my friends circle, or even send a note to all people (public
setting).
I am still building my circles. Once I have them close to
finished, I can then share a circle. This will allow people to
"subscribe" to the same people that I have built in my circles. This is
an awesome concept that allows people to connect and share easily.
This is where I think Google+ is better than Facebook, although I do
admit, I am not a Facebook expert. What do you guys think about the
comparisons of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
I would love to have you guys add me to one of your circles.
Even if it is your "dorks" circle. I am OK with that. This blog is
integrated with Google+, so if you add me, you will see all of my blog
posts as a Google+ post. So please get to adding!
Here is my profile:
https://plus.google.com/101813403618499617525/posts
Or you can click the add to your circles button on the upper right area of this blog...
You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
The E36 Alternator
Normally replacing an alternator is a breeze. Unless you don't have all of the information. One day I was backing out of my garage to head to work when I noticed my battery light came on. Since I have a decent commute, I decided to pull my baby back into the garage. I did some research and found out it was most likely the alternator. So here is where I made my first mistake. I went to Autozone and they sold me a replacement alternator. It does not come with a pulley. No big deal, right? I can remove the pulley form my old one and put it on the new one with my new impact. Solved...
So I did it, it took no time at all, and while I was at it, I replaced the belt. I took it to go see my son's baseball game and when I was almost there....Pop, crack, thump bang....battery light. I limp there and take a look. The belt is shredded so bad around the crank, I need to call a tow truck. Here is where the fun starts. I am researching like a mad man! I finally stumble on an obscure post that says the alternator pulley is only compatible with the same manufacturer that made the alternator. Guess what? During my car's year (1998) depending on the date it left the line, it could have a Valeo alternator, or a Bosch alternator. Autozone sold me a reman Bosch. I looked at my old one and it was a Valeo. The Valeo pulley is not compatible with a Bosch alternator. Stinko!!!!
Now what do I do? I need my baby back on the road. I do what any reasonable geek will do and go to the internet. I had several recommendations for this site that remanufactures and sells alternators. Alternator Pros is a first class business. I wanted to make sure they could sell me what I needed so I gave them a call. They were very helpful and did agree that the pulleys are not compatible and that they do indeed sell alternators with pulleys attached. I purchased one and put it on the car and my problems are gone. Lesson learned. If you need a good replacement alternator, go to Alternator Pros. Hopefully this will help other E36 owners. Remember....save money and stay geeky.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!
So I did it, it took no time at all, and while I was at it, I replaced the belt. I took it to go see my son's baseball game and when I was almost there....Pop, crack, thump bang....battery light. I limp there and take a look. The belt is shredded so bad around the crank, I need to call a tow truck. Here is where the fun starts. I am researching like a mad man! I finally stumble on an obscure post that says the alternator pulley is only compatible with the same manufacturer that made the alternator. Guess what? During my car's year (1998) depending on the date it left the line, it could have a Valeo alternator, or a Bosch alternator. Autozone sold me a reman Bosch. I looked at my old one and it was a Valeo. The Valeo pulley is not compatible with a Bosch alternator. Stinko!!!!
Now what do I do? I need my baby back on the road. I do what any reasonable geek will do and go to the internet. I had several recommendations for this site that remanufactures and sells alternators. Alternator Pros is a first class business. I wanted to make sure they could sell me what I needed so I gave them a call. They were very helpful and did agree that the pulleys are not compatible and that they do indeed sell alternators with pulleys attached. I purchased one and put it on the car and my problems are gone. Lesson learned. If you need a good replacement alternator, go to Alternator Pros. Hopefully this will help other E36 owners. Remember....save money and stay geeky.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Geeks Unite!
Another project we are working on in The Geek's Garage is the Hackintosh. We have already successfully built one using a iDeneb. Just Google around and you will find it. I have to admit, this was a bit of a challenge. It is much easier to go out and buy a used iMac on ebay. I actually may end up doing that because I use Photoshop often for other projects that I have here and it is much more reliable with a real Mac.
But, that is not what it is about is it?!? We are all about the fun of the project. Our next project will involve installing a Hackintosh from a retail Snow Leopard DVD. This should be a lot of fun to try . I will use info provided by TonyMacx86. Step by steps and multipart posts to come....
One of the sites that we love here at The Geek's Garage is Lifehacker. They list all kinds of geeky projects and are home to the always up to date Hackintosh guide. If you are a fan and have some documented projects, contact me, I would love to have a few guest posters.
But, that is not what it is about is it?!? We are all about the fun of the project. Our next project will involve installing a Hackintosh from a retail Snow Leopard DVD. This should be a lot of fun to try . I will use info provided by TonyMacx86. Step by steps and multipart posts to come....
One of the sites that we love here at The Geek's Garage is Lifehacker. They list all kinds of geeky projects and are home to the always up to date Hackintosh guide. If you are a fan and have some documented projects, contact me, I would love to have a few guest posters.
Free TV the XBMC Way --Part 1
I hate cable TV!!! That is even a sugarcoated statement. I truly despise it. If it was not for the rest of my family, it would be gone forever from my house! I have one TV in my house that is known as "daddy's TV". My four year old coined the phrase. "Daddy's TV" does not have cable tv hooked up to it. All it has is a Roku and an XBMC box.... but I am slowly losing control over my beloved library TV. So I thought, why not add a man screen to the garage and bring back "daddy's TV".
This is project number one here at the Geek's Garage. I picked up free HD tube TV that had some overheating issues. I could fix it probably by replacing some caps in the power supply, but you know what? In my garage in the winter months when I will be watching it, it won't be an issue. The best part about this TV is that it has a VGA input...
Next, I dug up some old computer parts I found an old 1.6 Mhz AMD, 1 GB memory, and about a 20 GB hard drive lying around doing nothing but collecting dust. For the man screen project, I don't have to worry about waf (wife acceptance factor). I know it will be ugly, but hey, it is in the garage! Remember, all hardware is different, your mileage may vary. If you have problems setting yours up, it will be with hardware and linux. I will go over the issues I had, but I can guarantee they will be different from yours. When you have issues, check the XBMC forums. I bet your question has already been answered.
My computer is old, so it does not boot from USB. That defeats the purpose of XBMC Live for me. Therefore, I must go out and download the minimum Ubuntu install to get this party started! I downloaded the minimum install here and burned it to a CD. What version you decide on is up to you. Since I have old hardware, I think I used 10.04.... I followed the guide located here. The only problems I had were with my video card. I had an older NVIDIA video card. I had to go download the old version 96.xxx drivers and install those with the Ubuntu minimal install and everything worked out fine.
Now comes one of the negatives, Netflix is not compatible with Linux yet. You have to have Windows or Mac OSX running to get the Netflix plugins to work. Since I have the Roku for Netflix movies, I prefer the Linux way, but that is a decision will have to make.
Now I have XBMC running on this box. For those of you unaware, XBMC is one of the best media center apps out there. Not only can it scrape video and TV content off the web, it can also be used as a music server, multiroom audio distribution, a video game console and many other things...you can find out more information about XBMC features here.
I will continue this post in multiple parts...
Save yourself some money and stay geeky.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!
Post Sponsor:
Not ready to take the geeky dive to XBMC?
Check out the ROKU. It is the easy way to stream!
This is project number one here at the Geek's Garage. I picked up free HD tube TV that had some overheating issues. I could fix it probably by replacing some caps in the power supply, but you know what? In my garage in the winter months when I will be watching it, it won't be an issue. The best part about this TV is that it has a VGA input...
Next, I dug up some old computer parts I found an old 1.6 Mhz AMD, 1 GB memory, and about a 20 GB hard drive lying around doing nothing but collecting dust. For the man screen project, I don't have to worry about waf (wife acceptance factor). I know it will be ugly, but hey, it is in the garage! Remember, all hardware is different, your mileage may vary. If you have problems setting yours up, it will be with hardware and linux. I will go over the issues I had, but I can guarantee they will be different from yours. When you have issues, check the XBMC forums. I bet your question has already been answered.
My computer is old, so it does not boot from USB. That defeats the purpose of XBMC Live for me. Therefore, I must go out and download the minimum Ubuntu install to get this party started! I downloaded the minimum install here and burned it to a CD. What version you decide on is up to you. Since I have old hardware, I think I used 10.04.... I followed the guide located here. The only problems I had were with my video card. I had an older NVIDIA video card. I had to go download the old version 96.xxx drivers and install those with the Ubuntu minimal install and everything worked out fine.
Now comes one of the negatives, Netflix is not compatible with Linux yet. You have to have Windows or Mac OSX running to get the Netflix plugins to work. Since I have the Roku for Netflix movies, I prefer the Linux way, but that is a decision will have to make.
Now I have XBMC running on this box. For those of you unaware, XBMC is one of the best media center apps out there. Not only can it scrape video and TV content off the web, it can also be used as a music server, multiroom audio distribution, a video game console and many other things...you can find out more information about XBMC features here.
I will continue this post in multiple parts...
Save yourself some money and stay geeky.
You are right: you don’t have to comment or share, but do it anyway; I love hearing from you!
Post Sponsor:
Not ready to take the geeky dive to XBMC?
Check out the ROKU. It is the easy way to stream!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
The Garage
A few years back, I purchased an old house that had no garage at all. After a couple of years getting the house livable, I had a really nice garage built in the back of the house. It is awesome! 22' X 32'... I am almost ready for the final construction inspection, then the projects will start! This blog is where I will document my man garage happenings and projects that occur in The Geeks Garage...
Potential Projects:
1) BMW E36 fixes and mods
2) Speaker building and audio
3) General constructions and building --Anything house related
4) Random sports rants!
5) Computer/network related projects
6) Side business and income streams
7) Any other manly things I can think of....
And of course....There will always be snippets of entertaining random man wisdom...
Potential Projects:
1) BMW E36 fixes and mods
2) Speaker building and audio
3) General constructions and building --Anything house related
4) Random sports rants!
5) Computer/network related projects
6) Side business and income streams
7) Any other manly things I can think of....
And of course....There will always be snippets of entertaining random man wisdom...
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