Erich Stauffer

Blog

  • Defining Generations

    Generations

    Sometimes it feel like the generations are getting smaller, or at least the names for the generations are getting named more often. A generation is generally defined as 20-30 years as this is the time it takes one person to grow up and have a new family. After Generation X (1961-1981) the names for generations began to take off. First there was Generation Y (1976-1997). In general, Generation Y is the offspring of Generation X, but since Generation X and Generation Y overlap by five years, both my older brother and I are both Generation X and Generation Y and our parents are part of neither generation. So what generation are my parents?

    My parents are Baby Boomers (1946-1964). Generation X, also known as Echo Boomers, Cold War Generation, or Baby Busters, is the offspring of Baby Boomers so by definition my brother and I are from Generation X even though we fall into the potential range of Generation Y. Because our parents were Baby Boomers (the 12th Generation of Americans), we are by default, Generation X (the 13th Generation of Americans). But if I am definitively Generation X, and by definition my children are Generation Y (1976-1997), I had my children seven years too late. So what generation are they and what went wrong?

    They are officially Generation Z (2001-2???). Did we skip a generation? Yes and no. To answer this question, we need to defined sub-generations. These are much more specific and this chart does a great job of explaining it. I am a member of either the Baby Busters (1960-1981) who are defined by experiencing Vietnam War/Cold War or a member of the MTV Generation / Boomerang Generation (1974-1985) defined by the Rise of Mass Media/End of the Cold War. Being that those generations overlap by 4 years, I am going to go with the MTV Generation because culturally, that is what I identify most with. What then, is the sub-generation of my parents?

    Even though my parents could be considered Baby Boomers, they themselves have never identified with that generation and so I think them better fit to be in Generation Jones (1951-1971) and within the sub-generation called Beat Generation. Beats are considered the first modern sub-culture, but my parents were not “Beats”. They are simply the lost generation between Baby Boomers and Generation Xers which probably highlights why I feel lost between Generation X and Generation Y. My children’s generation will probably be more defined due to better tracking with technology such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.

  • Technology That Has Changed My Life in the Last Decade

    Technology that has changed my life in the last decade (roughly in order by appearance):

    • camcorder
    • win 3.1
    • pop email
    • win 95
    • wwweb
    • geocities
    • hotmail
    • p2p file sharing
    • win xp
    • cell phone
    • dvd authoring
    • digital camera
    • web 2.0
    • win mce / dvr
    • gmail
    • cell phone camera
    • txt mesging
    • blogging from cell
    • gmail on cell
    • gmaps on cell
    • sms searching

    [Update 1/7/2012: This was written on April 20, 2007 so the time period is from 1997 to 2007.]

  • Maximum PC – May 2007 – Report

    Turn Your PC into Two Using Mojopac for $50

    This software clones your Windows installation onto an external hard drive (iPods included) and runs as if it is your other machine, because its using the same hardware, just a different hard drive. So what? Heres why it matters: you can install programs and keep files on this hard drive that are completely separate from your original machine. This means that you could go over to someone else’s machine, plug in, and pick up where you left off or be able to play games at work that you couldn’t install otherwise. Just pull the USB plug when you want to turn it off.

    Decrypt iTunes Music Using QTFairUse6 for Free

    To strip the DRM from your iTunes libray, download QTFairUse6 here. It only works with iTunes versions 7.02 or earlier and iTunes must be started and running before loading QTFairUse6. You can do one song or your entire library at once. Once converted, they may not play in all versions of iTunes, but you’ll be able to play them in any other AAC player.

  • Hope For Black Screens after Laptop Lid Closed and Reopend in Vista

    Dear NVIDIA Customer,

    On behalf of the NVIDIA Vista Quality Assurance team, we would like to thank you for your participation and assistance in improving our products.

    We are writing to let you know that there will be a new Windows Vista Beta driver release available to download from NVIDIA in the next few days. This is a new driver which will support GeForce 6, 7 and 8 series graphics boards; it does not support GeForce Go mobile GPUs. Please continue to check with your notebook manufacturer for a new driver for GeForce Go GPUs. GeForce FX users should continue to use the v96.85 driver.

    The Vista Quality Assurance homepage has up to the date information on when the driver will be available to download, so please continue to check this website: http://www.nvidia.com/object/vistaqualityassurance.html.

    Here is a summary of new features and bug fixes this new driver addresses:

    New Features

    • GeForce 7 series SLI support
    • GeForce 6 series SLI support
    • GeForce 7950 GX2 support (both GPUs are now operational)

    Key Bug Fixes

    • Improved OpenGL performance
    • Improved NVIDIA SLI performance at high resolutions
    • Brief corruption (flickering, boxes) on screen at Windows Vista login, CTR-ALT-DEL (Task Manager), or other function that requires Vista User Account Control
    • Playback issues when playing TV/DVD/video in Media Center with Aero enabled
    • Outputting via TV-Out shows only a black and white display
    • HDTV output does not keep HDTV resolution after restart
    • Adjusting Video Color settings from the NVIDIA Control Panel are not getting applied.
    • Change Flat Panel Scaling page does not correctly work in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
    • Brightness, Contrast and Gamma values remain the same in Adjust Desktop Color settings once closing and opening the NVIDIA Control Panel.
    • Corruption on DVI monitor while going to hibernation from standby
    • Call of Duty 2 has no performance gain when SLI is enabled
    • Madden NFL 07 while playing the screen will freeze, but the game will continue to run and you hear the in-game sounds.

    General application compatibility fixes

    • Products Supported
    • GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS
    • GeForce 7 series
    • GeForce 6 series

    When the driver is available, please view the driver Release Notes for a full list of bugs fixed, known driver issues, products supported, and operating system and application limitations. NVIDIA will continue to provide new drivers that will fix more known driver issues.

  • The TV of the Future

    HP seems to be leading the pack in Ethernet TV’s. This model has a media center built in that can stream video from another PC, such as a Media Center PC, either wired or wirelessly. This is the future of television because our society is desensitizing to time and place. By recording your TV on a media center and watching it whenever and wherever (within reason) you want, you’re untied from both the timing of the show and the tube you’re watching it on. Right now I can watch TV on the Media Center PC or on any laptop in the house. I’ve got a remote control for one of the laptops, but I hardly ever use it. The replacement of cathode-ray tube coaxial TVs with Ethernet TVs is basically like replacing each old type of TV with a smart-TV that can play streaming content as well as regular live TV. One might ask why not just use a PC, which can do other things? My answer is BECAUSE it can do other things, its usually not best for watching TV on the fly. The cost of one of these TVs is $1700 right now for a 37in LCD flat panel, but it will come down over time.

  • 3 Good Things About Vista, 1 Bad

    First, the bad news: Internet Explorer 7 in Vista resets toolbar settings everytime its reopened. Any changes you made, such as adding “Links” to the toolbar, will be undone after closing the program and reopening it.

    Now, for the good news: First, when copying your old files onto your new Vista machine, simply dump your entire “My Documents” directory into the “Documents” directory and Vista will prompt you to put the “My Pictures” and “My Videos” folders into their respective “Pictures” and “Videos” directory. Second, the sound control has a mixer to change volume levels for individual programs; a great feature for listening to music while chatting on AIM. Third, many more printer drivers are built into the operating system, allowing for easy installation. It’s almost like using a Mac.

  • More Vista Problems, Fixes

    StartupCPL has been a staple for administrators using previous versions of Windows, but Vista both has a startup program monitor built in (Windows Defender; also available for XP) and Mike Linn’s Startup Control Panel is not compatible with it. So one would think that you could disable or enable programs loading at startup using Windows Defender, but I have not found a way. If anyone knows, please post a comment. So far, the only way I have found is to use MSCONFIG. And to run that, you’ll have to hold down the Windows Key+R on the keyboard then type “msconfig”. Once in MSCONFIG, click on the Startup tab at the top and disable or enable programs from loading. Roxio Creator 9 is designed to run in XP and Vista, but Sonic DLA causes a driver conflict on my computer and I had to disable it using MSCONFIG (its called CommonSDK in MSCONFIG for some reason).

    WORKGROUP is the default workgroup in Vista Home Premium and so far I’ve found that one can only see other computers on that same workgroup. I suppose this is for security reasons as Vista is supposed to be more secure, but its kind of annoying since XP defaulted to using MSHOME as its workgroup name so at first, it seems that your old XP machines are not available. Either change your XP computers workgroup name to WORKGROUP or change your Vista workgroup name to MSHOME. I did the latter and this fixed it. Also make sure your network discovery is set to on (it will prompt you if it is not). You’ll see a green bar at the top of your file explorer as it searches for computers on the network, something XP never had. This feature is very nice as XP just seemed to lock up as it searched. I’ve noticed that this ‘real-time reporting’ is a basic feature of Vista as it also acts in the same way when Add/Remove Programs is loaded and it fills in the programs installed as it finds them, like in Windows Search. Nice feature.

  • External SATA (eSATA) Enclosures and MHT in Firefox

    Adaptec has been slow to release a 2.5″ external SATA enclosure compared to the major manufacturers relatively fast switch to almost exclusive use of SATA drives in laptops. My second choice would be Vantec’s version found at Newegg for $30.

    The MHT plugin for Firefox only works in version 1.5. Its called MAF which stands for Mozilla Archive Format. Although Firefox is forcing users to upgrade, the programmers have been slow to keep MAF up to date so I am forced to use Internet Explorer for MHT.

  • Dr. James Dobson’s Twelve Steps of Intimacy

    James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is founder of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization that produced his internationally syndicated radio program. A licensed psychologist and marriage, family, and child counselor, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in the field of child development. The author of more than 30 books, including his most recent bestseller, Bringing Up Boys.

    Written extensively about in Love for a Lifetime: Building a Marriage that Will Go the Distance and mentioned specifically during one of his Focus on the Family radio programs, Dr. Dobson recounts the 12 steps of intimacy:

    1. Eye to Body. A glance reveals much about a person — sex, size, shape, age, personality, and status. The importance people place on these criteria determines whether or not they will be attracted to each other.

    2. Eye to Eye. When the man and woman who are strangers to each other exchange glances, their most natural reaction is to look away, usually with embarrassment. If their eyes meet again, they may smile, which signals that they might like to become better acquainted.

    3. Voice to Voice. Their initial conversations are trivial and include questions like “What is your name?” or “What do you do for a living?” During this long stage the two people learn much about each other’s opinions, pastimes, activities, habits, hobbies, likes and dislikes. If they’re compatible, they become friends.

    4. Hand to Hand. The first instance of physical contact between the couple is usually a non-romantic occasion such as when the man helps the woman descend a high step or aids her across an obstacle. At this point either of the individuals can withdraw from the relationship without rejecting the other. However, if continued, hand-to-hand contact will eventually become an evidence of the couple’s romantic attachment to each other.

    5. Hand to Shoulder. This affectionate embrace is still noncommittal. It is a “buddy” type position in which the man and woman are side by side. They are more concerned with the world in front of them than they are with each other. The hand-to-shoulder contact reveals a relationship that is more than a close friendship, but probably not real love.

    6. Hand to Waist. Because this is something two people of the same sex would not ordinarily do, it is clearly romantic. They are close enough to be sharing secrets or intimate language with each other. Yet, as they walk side by side with hand to waist, they are still facing forward.

    7. Face to Face. This level of contact involves gazing into one another’s eyes, hugging and kissing. If none of the previous steps were skipped, the man and woman will have developed a special code from experience that enables them to engage in deep communication with very few words. At this point, sexual desire becomes an important factor in the relationship.

    8. Hand to Head. This is an extension of the previous stage. The man and woman tend to cradle or stroke each other’s head while kissing or talking. Rarely do individuals in our culture touch the head of another person unless they are either romantically involved or are family members. It is a designation of emotional closeness.

    9-12. The Final Steps. The last four levels of involvement are distinctly sexual and private. They are:

    • (9) Hand to Body,
    • (10) Mouth to Breast,
    • (11) Touching Below the Waist, and
    • (12) Intercourse.