My Semi-new triple core home built computer

Finally I got my new computer up and running. It was my christmas present and it took me 2 days to get it built and loaded up. My specs:

• 22" LCD Monitor by Sceptre $119 Dollars ($159 - 40 MIR) Which I mailed in already.
• Plantronics Stereo Headphones with Microphone $5.99
• 500GB WD HDD 7200 RPM 32mb Cache 3g SATA for $74.99
• AMD Phenom X3 8750 CPU Overclocked to 3ghz $119.00
  
• ASUS M3A78-EM Micro ATX NB780G/SB700 $78.99
  

MB and CPU were bought as a combo with a $30.00 Discount

• 22x LiteOn DVD/CD Writer $42.99 (Had to have it fast so I got hosed on the price)
• 52x CD Drive $0 I already had $10 for reference though
• Logitech 5.1 surround sound speakers $0 I already had. $50 for reference
• Mid Tower Case $0 I already had. I had to modify/Add to it though
• 3 Case 80mm Case fans $1.99 each $6 total
  
• 500W Power Supply $1.96 with $10 Mail in rebate, Nice find also. It was a "Open Box"
• Windows XP Pro 64bit $59.99 from online liquidator
• HIS ATI 4670 512mb DDR3 Video card. $79 Awesome Card
• 4gb Kingston Hyper X 1066 RAM. $51.99
  

So the initial cost was $689 + $15 shipping and $10 in tax. The items from newegg.com were tax free. I got a $30 discount on the motherboard and cpu combo. I got a $40 Mail in rebate and a $10 mail rebote on the monitor and power supply which I already sent in.

so $715 -80 = $635 Which I am mighty happy about. The thing screams. I got a lan party in a couple weeks which will test it out nicely but so far I have ran Battlefield 1942 maxed out and it didn't even think about giving me a problem.

I need to purchase Counter Strike Source and practice now.

Monkey Bizness Fun!

Wow! My sisters are visiting for a couple days and we decided to go to the Great Mall of the Great Plains tonight in Olathe just north of Gardner, Kansas. We planned on letting our kids play in the food court play area for a while. Well that got boring after 20 minutes and my wife and sisters wanted to shop more, so we decided to go to the Monkey Bizness, we hesitated a little because it cost $7.50 for each child for unlimited tome for the day. But we paid and went in. Wife and sisters took off shopping leaving me with my 3 children and my sisters 2 children. All together 3,3,4,5,7 ages.

Well, they took off and started playing, soon though the smaller kids were having troubles climbing on the blow up slides and obstacle courses. so I kick my shoes off and started helping them. Turns out all the equipment is very very sturdy, never once did I have an issue and I am #200. There were probably 20 kids running around the room we were in and we never had an issues with running over the other kids, just plenty of room. A huge 15' slide was probably the funnest of all. All the tumbles that everyone took and no one got more than a short cry when my son did a face plant. It just scared him a little but he was off and going again in seconds.

The place has 3 very large rooms that are basically identical. Only 1 way out so it is pretty easy to keep track of a kid trying to escape. Would be nice to be able to have a gate across but I know that has its own issues.

All in all I would highly recommed the place. It is well worth the $7.50. The parties are damned expensive though. We will be going back soon.

Homemade Loft Bed Playhouse Part 2

Check out Part 1

Next figure out where you want your door and windows and start cutting the pieces to length. As you can see you don't have to be perfect because you will be covering it with trim. Your sides will go about 1 foot higher than the tom of the platform so you need to put a 2x4 to extend the height. This acts as a side to keep the kids from rolling out.

A view of the inside. The boards will warp a little so we added a small 2x2 nside the long pard of the sidien to keep it straight.

As you put on the siding you will want to use 2 screws per board to hold them in place.

Now start adding the trim. On these you'll want to predrill the screw holes and counter sink them so that you can fill them in with wood putty to be painted over.

All the trim is on. Time for the roof and steps to finish.


Check out Part 1

Simple Basic Pasta with a good flavor

Just created a great little pasta dish that was created from leftovers for lunch today. Turned out so good I decided to post it.

1/2 Bag noodles (Anykind should do) I used ziti
1 16oz jar of pasta sauce(Spaghetti or pizza) I used pizza
Half chunk of pepper cheese( Pepper jack or a Pepper cheddar) I used Pepper Cheddar

All this was left over or getting close to not being used in time. I melted the cheese into the pasta sauce, boiled the noodles and then mixed it together. Turned out really really good.

We will be creating it again.

Why not to buy a hp printer on clearance

Basically never even consider buying a HP printer from the open box clearence shelf. A week ago I bought a HP 5610v printer from the ioopen box clearence shelf for $30 down from $129. Great deal right?

Well it did not have a cord, so I thought I would use my other hp cord which looked like it would fit and if not surely I could pick on up for $10 or less.

It did not have instructions or drivers. Surely I could download them online.

It did not come with cartridges. No biggy, the black cartridge was only $21.

So I bought it and the HP 56 catridge. $51 altogether. So I get home and unplug my other hp printer and start to plug the new one in and it dod not fit. Looking closer there is a small slot that is on the wrong side. It also was a 15v vs 16v. So I get online and find out a new power adapter for this printer is $59 new plus shipping. That was not good. Finally after searching high and low I found a used adapter for $13 plus $ shipping on Ebay. $20 but better than nothing.

6 days later I finally get my adapter cord. So I plug it in and put int the cartridge, and it starts displaying an error. It apparently needs the other tri-color cartridge to work. I am a bit confused as to why I cannot just print with the black, so I installed the software the only thing so far that hasn't costed anything. Anyway, I thought maybe the software would let me disable the need for the second cartridge, no it was not a feature. So I had to get the second HP 22 cartridge which is a ripoff for the amount of ink available. $15.

So far I have spent $86 on a clearence open box printer that I could have gotten a newer model boxed comparable hp printer for $89. But I saved $3 and the printer is now working.

Never again!

Gardner Cub Scout Websites

Here are the links to the Gardner Kansas area cubscout websites.

Pack 3388
Covers Sunflower and Madison Elementary schools

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Pack 3088
Covers Gardner and Moonlight Elementary schools

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Pack 3888
Covers Nike Elementary

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Please visit each website to find out more on how to join.

Simple Basic Chili Recipe

For anyone who wants to cook a chili batch starting with a simple recipe and then adding to it.
Think of it as a starter recipe.

2 cans 6oz tomato paste (Plus 2 6oz cans of water )
2 cans mexican/chili beans
1-2 lbs Meat. I use 1lb of ground turkey. But any meat is good.
2 tbsp chili powder - add more to taste

Cook the Meat. Put it in a 5+ Quart pot. Add everything to the pot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Turn down to low and cover for 5 minutes. Serve.

That is a good simple recipe that makes 6+ servings. It will please everyone.

From that point you start adding your own. Start small don't add too much of 1 thing at a time. In ours we add 1 can or 1 small bag of corn. Pepper,sherry wine,garlic powder and onion powder.

At the table we add Cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Homemade Loft Bed Playhouse for $150

This summer our daughter wanted a playhouse. After a lot of thought we decided to go ahead and create it in her room so she could play in it in the winter also. So we started search for the best way to create it, but we could only find overly done and expensive solutions. So what follows is what we cam up with. It costed us about $150 dollars, we already has a mattress but they would only be another $50.

Off to home depot we went. We fould the 1"x6"x8' pine unfinished toungue and groove siding. They were about $6 apiece. We bought 11. We also needed the trim which we used regular ripped 1"x4"x8' trim. They were $4 each which we bought 9. A box of 2" screws about $5. White paint and pink paint and primer. about $25. 8 2"x4"x8' studs for the frame about $2 each. For the Roof we used 1 1"x6"x8' and some scrap wood for the shingles. The steps we used 1 of the 1"x4"x8' trim boards and 1 1"x6"x10' board for the risers about $4.



We removed her old bed. We have the paneling on the wall which we decided to leave. Later we would remove the carpet in her room and replace it with laminate and put purple carpet inside the playhouse.

Next step is to get your wife to paint the boards. First use primer then add the paint. The pine will soak up paint like no tommorrow.

While the primer and paint is drying time to build the frame. Pick the height you want the platform. I chose 48". Measure your mattress and build your platform. You'll need 6 pieces for the width and 2 pices for the length. Lay the 6 pieces evenly spaced and screw them together with the 2.5 or 3 inch screws. I use 2.5. Cut a piece of 3/8 inch sheathing to size and screw the down to the platform with 1.5 or 2 inch screws. I put screws in everything, you could use nails but I prefer screws because I feel they make for a tighter and stringer structure. Screw on your legs and then using a stud finder find the studs in the wall and screw the legs to them with 3.5 or 3inch screws. I also used 2 2.5" lag screws.

Part 2, now for the finish

My Chinese Thai Noodle Recipe

16 oz of noodles (Spaghetti or whatever)
16 oz Frozen mixed vegetables
2 Eggs
1-2 lb Chicken or pork cut into strips or chunks
3 Tbsp Sugar
5 Tbsp Cooking oil
4 Tbsp Water
3 Tbsp Sherry Wine
.5-1 tsp Hot chili sauce
5 Tbsp Soy sauce
4 Tbsp Stir Fry Sauce
.5 tsp Ginger
.5 tsp Garlic Powder

Boil the noodles according to the directions. Drain and put back into pan.
Add 1 Tbsp of soy sauce
Add 2 Tbsp cooking oil
Add 16 oz Frozen Vegetables
Fry Meat till cooked
Stir in
3 Tbsp Oil
4 Tbsp Soy Sauce
4 Tbsp Stir Fry Sauce
.5 tsp Ginger
.5 tsp Garlic Powder
3 Tbsp Sugar
4 Tbsp Water
3 Tbsp Sherry Wine
.5-1 tsp Hot chili sauce

Cook for 6 minutes
Pour Meat and sauce over Noodles
Scramble the 2 Eggs in the meat pan
Pour into the Noodles
Mix and Continue on low heat until the Vegetables are soft about 10 minutes

Serve. Should make about 8 servings.

Ramen Noodle Recipe

After getting 5 teeth pulled in 2 weeks I have become a fan of Ramen noodles. However they are a little bland on taste. So I spice them up a little bit.

Beef Noodle Delight :)

1pkg Beef Ramen noodles
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Half teaspoon hot sauce(Red Hot,Tobasco,Chili pepper sauce)
1 tablespoon sugar

Boil 2 cups of water
Add sauces,sugar and flaovr packet from noodle and noodles.
Stir.

Enjoy.

Creating Watermarks on Textboxes using Javascript

Anymore watermarks are becoming more and more popular on websites. WaterMarks help to save space and can give a user more guidance than just the label does. I use watermarks to save space and give the proper format. For instance I may label a textbox "Phone" and place the watermark within the text box as "#-###-###-####" When the user click or tabs into the box it removes the watermark. If the users clicks or tabs out of the text box I check for a blank and then replace the watermark otherwise I leave the text alone.

The code I use is only javascript and I add a attribute named "WaterMark" to the textbox. An example would be

<input value="" id="myTextBox" WaterMark="#-###-###-####" type="text">

Below is the Javascript functions. Add them to your page within <script> tags or to your .js file.

function SetWaterMarks() {
var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input');

for (var f = 0; f < inputs.length; f++) {
var input = inputs[f]
if (input.type != 'text') continue;
if (input.getAttribute('WaterMark') != null) {
input.onfocus = function() { WaterMarkOff(this); }
input.onblur = function() { WaterMarkOn(this); }
if (input.value == '') {
WaterMarkOn(input);
}
}
else {
input.style.backgroundColor = '';
}
}
}
function WaterMarkOn(obj) {
if (obj.value == '') {
obj.style.color = 'silver';
obj.value = obj.getAttribute("WaterMark");
}
}
function WaterMarkOff(obj) {

if (obj.value == obj.getAttribute("WaterMark")) {
obj.style.color = '';
obj.value = '';

}
}
function ClearWaterMarks() {
var inputs = document.getElementsByTagName('input');
for (var f = 0; f < inputs.length; f++) {
var input = inputs[f]
if (input.type != 'text') continue;
if (input.getAttribute('WaterMark') != null) {
if (input.value == input.getAttribute('WaterMark')) {
input.value = '';
}
}
}
//return true;
}
SetWaterMarks();

When the page loads it will search the page for "text" boxes and look for a WaterMark attribute. If it finds th watermark attribute it will apply the water mark. The only thing left to do is to clear the watermarks prior to postback. The ClearWaterMarks() function will do that for you but you must place it on the form submit function or on the onclick event of the button that is expected to be used.

To Add or Create a watermark on a textbox could not be easier.
Hope this helps someone, it is much lighter than other versions I have seen.

Single Server as a Cluster

If you only have access to 1 server for your website you may have some issues that could be solved by adding additional servers and creating a cluster. But maybe you only have a single server. Most servers these days hae at least 2 processors and 2-8 gigs of RAM.

The windows process only allows 1.3 gig per process of RAM. A simple solution is to use the web gardens of IIS 6+ however if you have a session management requirement then the web gardens will likely drop your sessions.

Another solution is to create multiple websites using host headers and redirect initial incoming traffic to another website on the single server. Simply create 3 subdomains on your DNS host. Say www1.yoursite.com, www2.yoursite.com and www3.yoursite.com. When the initial request comes in you can check for the load balancing and redirect them to the cleanest subdomain each which will use a different process and allow it to use more processors.

Please Comment.

Happy Halloween

This would never happen in Gardner, Kansas

Simple SQL Select Statement

A basic SQL select statement is
Select * FROM tbl