Boost Your Metabolism!

I've been trying to gain weight, but I know a lot of people are trying to lose weight. I think this is a good guide to help boost your metabolism. Luckily, I have a naturally high metabolism rate, but some are not as fortunate!

Boost Your Metabolism!

Eric Prydz

Being a big fan of Eric Prydz - Call On Me, I happened to come across a blog mentioning another great remix he has done! Check it out!

Eric Prydz Vs. Pink Floyd

Guitar Hero 2 Defect? Part 2

So my roommate and I exchanged the defective Guitar Hero 2 disc and have been playing freeze free since! Thank goodness... It seems the manufacturer skimped on the quality of the discs and was causing the PS2 some hassles when streaming the music! Bad Activision! Bad! We are on our way to beating Guitar Hero 2 on expert! Woohoo!! Back to the game!

Guitar Hero 2 Defect?

My roommate recently received Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2 and we have been playing the hell out of it. This is one of those unbelievably fun games that is for anyone who loves music or wishes they could play guitar! We have been enjoying the game and playing it non-stop until recently. For some reason, the game will load up fine, but will NOT load to any of the songs to play! In a sudden fit of withdrawal, I jumped on the computer and did a Google search for the problem I came across the Guitar Hero Website Forum and read through the postings to find others with the same problem. There appears to be no clear solution to the problem although some have been successful switching the game out, while others have opened up their PS2's to clean it out. I am only hoping a simple exchange of the game will solve the problem... I need to play Sweet Child 'o Mine!

On another note, my roommate, my girlfriend, and I went to the Guns n' Roses concert in The Palace of Auburn Hills and it was quite amazing. Axl Rose seems to be the only intact member of the band, but you can't replace the voice! Here's a clip from the concert...

Apothecary Beats

I love to make beats. I'm going to find a rapper who can really flow on my stuff and we're going to hit it big! I need to find that rapper though. I am very confident that if I were to produce with a talented rapper, we could really make some great Hip-Hop. I have been honing my skills with Reason and bought a couple of books to help me out. If you are looking for some expert tips, I definitely recommend these two.

Reason 3 Overdrive! Expert Quick Tips
Power Tools for Reason 3.0

Both of these books contain an abundance of tips to get that sounds you're looking for out of Reason. I'm sure you know Reason has a 'flat' sound when you export your tracks. Well these books can help you with that... Check out my remix page and let me know what you think!

Apothecary Beats Remixes

Incredible Installation Tools!

Taken straight from lifehacker.com:

Automatically download and install your favorite software

This is one of the most helpful setups I've seen... If you ever want to install all your favorite apps or manage them easily in windows, this is it!

This coupled with:

Driver Collector

can get you setup on a new PC very quickly!

PC Cleanup

I just happened to be doing some cleaning up on my PC and thought I'd recommend some programs I use for Windows Maintenance. This trio of programs has kept me running like a well-oiled machine. I use two programs to detect spyware.

Spybot S&D (spyware scanner and cleaner)
AdAware (malware scanner and cleaner)
CCleaner (system optimization)

I also use a free anti-virus program as I hate how much of a resource hog Norton is.

AVG

iPod Diagnostic Mode

For all those with an iPod, Check this video out from Metacafe. You can boot your iPod into diagnostic mode! You don't have to have a broken iPod to go into diagnostic mode, but if you feel like checking in to make sure your iPod is running in tip-top shape, this should help you out. Methodshop.com explains the diagnostics in datail...

The iPod's Diagnostic Mode [Methodshop.com]

Water Powered Car??

After reading this article and doing a little research about Stan Meyer, I have an idea... And it's definitely not a water-powered car.

"Actually, startup ideas are not million dollar ideas, and here's an experiment you can try to prove it: just try to sell one. Nothing evolves faster than markets. The fact that there's no market for startup ideas suggests there's no demand. Which means, in the narrow sense of the word, that startup ideas are worthless."

Dell E1505 + Dual Boot Windows MCE/Ubuntu 6.10

So I've recently bought a new Dell laptop, and have been dual booting Windows MCE/Ubuntu Edgy Eft. First, some specs on my laptop:

Core 2 Duo T7200
15.4 in UltraSharp Wide Screen with TrueLife
2 GB RAM
256MB X1400
8x CD/DVD Burner
120 GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Intel Pro Wireless
Bluetooth

All for ~$1100!! Pretty good deal eh? ;) ANYWAYS...

The last distribution I had tried out was Mandrake 8.0 way back in my sophomore year at Purdue. I felt another Linux itch due to using it on the job, and decided to try out what seems to be the best and easiest distribution out there. After tinkering around for a few days, I had finally gotten the computer up to an usable everyday machine. I am happy with how it is setup, and don't mind doing everyday tasks (web surfing, checking e-mail, etc.). I still feel Linux doesn't offer the user-friendliness Windows or Mac OS's do. The general feeling of using Ubuntu seems somewhat 'shaky'. I realize Linux is a lot more stable and the benefits of the open-source community, but the open-source community also thinks like a bunch of engineers. Here are some UI improvements I have thought of for Ubuntu.

• Add/Remove programs straight from the applications lists. A simple right click and 'Uninstall' or drag and drop into the trash bin for deleting a program, and a universal 'double click' installer package for programs. There might be a solution for the latter, but I know the former hasn't been implemented...
• A default application launcher akin to Mac OSX's launching dock (and kiba dock). Simplify it for the masses. Put EVERYDAY tasks in the launcher like browsing the internet, checking e-mail, listen to music, chat. These tasks can link to the preferred program of choice, but these general tasks are what EVERYONE uses these days.
• Let the user feel the power they have over the computer. Yes, we know Linux CLI is amazing and the user can do anything they want from it, but most everyone is overwhelmed at first! Have the distribution check installation issues and present the appropriate actions to the user (and not a simple 'go to the how-to page' link).
• Make things simpler right from installation. Why no network-manager? Why no beagle in the taskbar? K.I.S.S.!

I'll probably think of more, but these were just a few very general things... I'll leave you with a link I used quite a bit while playing with Ubuntu...

http://www.ubuntuguide.org

General Bittorrent Improvements

Found a great resource for improving Bittorrent download speeds. I currently use Azereus, but have heard good things about uTorrent. Anyway, this is a good resource to improve those speeds!

http://torrentfreak.com/9-bittorrent-how-tos/