UPS and Clean Power

UPS are the best thing since sliced bread. Out here in Afghanistan power is less than reliable, and the power you do have is as clean as Courtney Love's blood stream. Even though I'm out in the middle of nowhere, I still have my electronics with me. Before I just had a Sager notebook, but for the price I paid for that I knew I could build a killer AMD system for a thousand dollars less with twice the memory and twelve times the hard drive space. So I did. While waiting on the delivery of my tower I had experienced a massive power surge that even my power supply and laptop battery couldn't handle. Goodbye data. This disturbed me. If a power surge can do that to a simple laptop, what would it do to my tower? Not to mention my Xbox 360, dual monitors, speakers, and everything else I wish to plug into the power? I acted quickly and ordered UPS systems off of NewEgg. I couldn't be happier. Now I have the most reliable power on the FOB, and none of my stuff is mission essential. It's all for my personal stuff. I highly recommend CyberPower UPS. You won't regret it.

“Take care of your equipment and tools. If PMCSed properly they will always take care of you when you need them.” SFC Stubblefield.

Microsoft, Zune, Linux, and Frustration

I don't get it. Microsoft wants to make money. They do everything in their power to make money, but the right way to make money. I just bought a Zune from the Bagram PX, and I can't sync it with my music through Ubuntu. You'd think Microsoft would be smart and play nice with other OS's besides their own. Apparently the Zune doesn't even play nice with Apple's OS-X.

I would have bought an Ipod, but it did not have the features I wanted, and did not have enough storage space. I know Apple tries to do everything in their power to make sure the Ipod doesn't work with 3 ^rd party applications that aren't Itunes, but due to it's prevalence an individual is able to use tools in Linux to do what they wish with an Ipod.

I'm disappointed, but it's for these reasons I continue to dual boot all my systems. I'll just download the Zune software and install it in Vista. Perhaps I'll try to install it with Wine in Ubuntu and see what happens.

Just a note for Microsoft and Apple. If you want to sell more hardware, try to make sure your systems can interface properly with other operating systems. I know you want to make more money with your Zune and Itunes stores, but let's be honest, no one who knows what they are doing are going to use these features. I'll continue to rip my music from my CD collection and transfer them to my portable players.

“Play nice with others, and others will play nice with you.”