raddevon.com - tech, the Internet, and gaming (iPod)

Video: Automated online bargain hunting

raddevon — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:00:21 +0000

Online shopping has opened up for many of us a shopping world that was totally alien before it. Online retailers are competing with every other store you can think of which makes the competition fierce. They also sell large quantities of items which opens up room for deep discounts never before imagine by B&M retailers. Computers and the Internet also make it easier to shop. Here is a technique that automates the entire bargain hunting process. If you want something and a have a few weeks to wait, use this procedure, and there’s a good chance you’ll find a deal you never thought possible.

First, you’ll need a Gmail account. If you already have one, you’ll probably need an additional one. Second, you will need a Yahoo account for use with Yahoo Alerts.

Use the procedure described in the video, sit back, and watch the deals roll in!

Here are some great feeds to subscribe to in order to get the most out of this system:

Ben’s Bargains (Feed: http://bensbargains.net/rss.xml/0)
Techdeals.net (Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/techdealsnet)
GottaDeal.com (Feed: http://www.gottadeal.com/rss2.xml)
The Bargainist (Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/bargainist)
JungleCrazy (feed: http://www.junglecrazy.com/rss.php)
DealHack (Feed: http://www.dealhack.com/index.xml)
SlickDeals (Feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/SlickdealsnetFP)
FatWallet (Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FatwalletHotDeals)
CheapAssGamer (Feed: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/rss.php?contenttype=2)
CheapCollegeGamers (Feed: http://www.cheapcollegegamers.com/forum/external.php?type=RSS2)

That should get you started. If you find other feeds I may have missed, please post them in the comments. Thanks for watching. I’ll have a new episode on April 3rd.

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Video: Making an ethernet cable

raddevon — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:00:46 +0000

If you have to wire this, you definitely need to learn to make cables.

This is the first video in a short series about using your geek-sense to save a little cash. The first installment: making your own ethernet cable.

You may be wondering how buying a cabling kit that costs $71.50 is going to save you money. For the average person, it probably won’t save you much. If you need a couple of 6′ cables to wire up everything, you can get by purchasing pre-made cables. There are a number of scenarios where that much cable (at that price) will save you money.

You need to run two or three cables from one side of the house to another. Forgetting the fact that you may not find a store with cables at the length you need, a brick-and-mortar retailer has no qualms charging you almost a dollar per foot or more for the pre-made cable. The cost of two fifty-foot cables will pay for the box, and you’ll have loads of cable left for fun and profit.
You’re hosting a LAN party. If you’re going to wire up 20 or 30 machines, this is a no-brainer. You can’t touch the cost of doing it yourself.
You’re a cheap-ass and intend to split the cost of the kit with several friends. You can most likely wire any ten of your friends for less than the cost of wiring one of you the lazy way.

I believe I have sufficiently justified the existence of this video. So, on to the information!

Wikipedia has an excellent article (albeit a short one) on category 5e cable. This is the classification of cable you’re getting with the kit from Geeks.com. For most, this will be everything you might need. The specification allows for cables up to 328 feet. With support for gigabit ethernet, it will support anything a typical home network can throw at it.

The image above is from a tutorial on PC911 and clearly shows the correct order of the wires before you insert them into the connector and crimp. This is also described in the video, but I have placed the image here for quick reference. The order of the colors from left to right are white/orange, orange, white/green, blue, white/blue, green, white/brown, brown.

I think that pretty much covers it! If you have problems or questions, drop a comment. I will make an effort to respond to each and every comment posted here. Good luck and happy cabling!

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Links

Check back for the next episode in which I will demonstrate some killer online shopping techniques for maximum savings! Look for it Friday, March 20th.

Video: Easy Digital Music Recording

raddevon — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:00:32 +0000

Colin Campbell is my brother, and, more importantly for the purposes of this video, he is a singer/songwriter who records music digitally and distributes it online. He uses a very cheap and simple method. If you want studio-quality recording, this isn’t for you. If you want to continue to gain exposure while you finance your studio gear, or if you simply want to be heard regardless of how it sounds, this may be the simplest and easiest way to do so.

He uses only software and hardware included with his Macbook to record his tunes and distributes them online via rifflet.com. If you have a Macbook, you can follow his exact procedure to record and distribute your tracks. If you have a PC, he suggests the free and open-source audio recording program Audacity. This can really be done with any kind of computer along with a microphone… even if it’s a cheap one! Like I said, the goal is not to build a home studio but to quickly and economically digitize your music and get it heard.

Colin also recorded a screencast showing his recording and uploading process to make things even easier on you.

Be sure to check out Colin’s other tracks on rifflet. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed of his music to see updates in your feed reader when he posts a new song. If you need further information or have questions, you can e-mail him @ appletofu [at] gmail [dot] com.

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Video: Building an arcade cabinet

raddevon — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:00:49 +0000

It’s nice to have friends in high places. Failing that, it’s nice to have friends who can build you a sweet arcade cabinet! Brandon Haynes is a Rubik’s Cube virtuoso. He’s also pretty good with power tools. In this episode of the raddevon video podcast, we discuss his experience building a MAME cabinet.

The plans Brandon used to construct the cabinet were obtained for free from ArcadeCab.com. The only modifications made were to accomodate for the HotRod joystick as the original plan assumes a homemade control panel.

The monitor was found through an ad on the Freecycle Network which allows users to post giveaway items to be claimed by other users. BYOAC (Build Your Own Arcade Controls) has a video section which explains the ins and outs of different types of monitors.

The cabinet is not currently done (We will revisit it when it’s complete.), but the build cost is going to be less than $300 for the materials, monitor, and hardware necessary. I’m lucky enough to have an old Dell Pentium 4 lying around I can use as the brains of the cabinet. I also have some computer speakers. Check out the price list for details on the prices and sources of our components.

For more information, questions, or advice on this project, contact Brandon via e-mail (rcubeman [at] comcast [dot] net).

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Resources

Coming up on raddevon video for February 20th, I have an interview with a musician who distributes music online using equipment and software you probably already have. Check back in two weeks at 8pm Eastern.

If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to the podcast using the links in the sidebar on the right. You might also want to subscribe to the blog!

Video: Google Reader Basics Tutorial

raddevon — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:00:18 +0000

This is the first episode of what I intend to be a bi-weekly video show. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about it. If you have ideas for what you would like me to cover in a show, leave that in the comments as well. Not every episode will be an instructional screencast. I intend to cover much of the same material in the show as you might find on the site. I hope you like it. Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or your podcatcher. You can add either the HD Quicktime format (iTunes) or the iPod format (iTunes) to your podcatcher of choice! Two additional feed options are coming soon: Standard Definition Quicktime and Audio-only MP3.

Have you ever wondered how some people seem to keep track of all the latest news breaking online? How are they able to follow so many web sites? The secret is RSS coupled with a good feed reader. There are tons of options for feed reading including a multitude of both desktop applications and web-based applications. This tutorial focuses on one of the most popular options, Google Reader. Like many of Google’s services it has a simple interface, is free, fast, and available anywhere.

In the video, I demonstrate how to find feeds and add them to the app. Then I show how to use basic keyboard navigation. Here is a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for you keyboard junkies:

j/k	item down/up	selects the next/previous item in the list
space/shift-space	page down/up	moves the page down/up
n/p	scan down/up	in list view, selects the next item without opening it
o	open/close item	in list view, expands or collapses the selected item
enter	open/close item	in list view, expands or collapses the selected item
s	toggle star	stars the selected item
shift-s	toggle share	shares the selected item
m	mark as read/unread	switches the read state of the selected item
t	tag an item	opens the tagging field for the selected item
v	view original	opens the original source for this article in a new window
shift-a	mark all as read	marks all items in the current view as read
1	expanded view	displays the subscription as expanded items
2	list view	displays the subscription as a list of headlines
r	refresh	refreshes the unread counts in the navigation
shift-n/p	navigation down/up	selects the next/previous subscription or folder in the navigation
shift-x	navigation expand/collapse	expand or collapse a folder selected in the navigation
shift-o	navigation open subscription	opens the item currently selected in the navigation
gh	go to home	goes to the Google Reader homepage
ga	go to all items	goes to the “All items” view
gs	go to starred items	goes to the “Starred items” view
gt	go to tag	allows you to navigate to a tag by entering the tag name
gu	go to subscription	allows you to navigate to a subscription by entering the subscription name
u	toggle full screen mode	hides and shows the list of subscriptions
?	keyboard shortcuts help	displays a quick guide to all of Reader’s shortcuts

There are a couple of useful shortcuts that I forgot to mention in the video. The “g” shortcuts allow you to filter your feeds in different ways. Press “g” followed by “a” to go to the all items view; “g” followed by “s” will show your starred stories; and “g” followed by “u” shows an overlay that lists all your subscribed feeds. Start typing the name of the feed you want to view and press enter to show stories only from that feed.

Here are some cool feeds to get you started. Take note that these feeds won’t do much without some sort of feed reader to view them. I am linking directly to the RSS not to the web site.

Tech

Internet

Gaming

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For fans of this site, those feeds will get you off to a good start. Don’t forget to subscribe to the raddevon.com feed! Also, feel free to choose one of the category feeds on the right if you want only one category of posts. Be sure to talk back in the comments. Which other feed readers do you use, and what makes them better than the mighty Google? Until next time!