Hung Truong: The Blog!

KVM DVI Switches: Why So Expensive!?

Right now I’m using a Dell 24-inch screen with my hand-built Windows box. But I also have a 13-inch Macbook that I’ve been using for school and software development (Unix is simply a nicer environment than Windows). I’ve been wanting to get the Mac on the 24-inch screen, but I only have a mini-dvi to DVI adapter. So I was thinking of getting one of those nifty KVM switches that let you use one set of input devices for multiple computers.

A KVM switch that supports DVI video inputs costs like, $175! Why so expensive!? I’m not an electrical engineer (or computer engineer even), but it doesn’t make sense that the hardware can cost so much. Couldn’t you just rig something up that just physically “switches” the wiring? Maybe the switch requires some power, but I can’t imagine the logic being that terribly complex. In comparison, a lot of the VGA KVM switches I’ve looked at cost maybe $25. What’s the difference, besides a few extra signals being re-routed?

So my short term cheapo fix will probably be to buy a $19 Mini-dvi to VGA adapter for my Macbook. My monitor has multiple inputs (VGA, DVI, Component, Composite, S-Video) so I can just switch from VGA to DVI for Mac to PC. The video quality might suffer, but I probably won’t be able to tell the difference anyway (my older brother claims he can).

Jackie Chan iGoogle Theme

I use iGoogle a lot. One of the more recent things that has come along with iGoogle is the introduction of artist themes. I guess they’re there to break up the monotony of a boring home page.

I was going through the gallery when one such theme caught my eye: Jackie Chan! The theme is a cartoony (but not like the Jackie Chan cartoon… and on a side note, isn’t it kind of ridiculous that they needed to hire a voice actor for the cartoon to play Jackie with a fake Chinese American accent!?) fictionalization of Jackie Chan apparently filming a movie where he fights ninjas. That’s fine, but who the heck drew this? If you told me Jackie drew it, I’d believe you. And it’s also the only way I’d forgive the slanty-eyed caricature of Jackie. May is Asian Heritage Month, people!

Anyway, I’m using it as my iGoogle theme, because it’s funny and I like Jackie Chan. Even if he does look a bit like a racist stereotype. Oh well!

MapsKrieg in a Mashup Contest – Vote For Me!

I keep forgetting to mention this. A while back there was this cryptic ad on Facebook about mashups and it led to a Dice.com sponsored contest. I figured I would enter MapsKrieg and I sort of forgot about it. Checking the visitor stats, I noticed some people were coming from a contest poll page. So MapsKrieg was chosen as a finalist in this contest!

The prize is $4000, which is pretty neat. So please check out the finalists and vote (preferably for me)! Mine is #2, “Home & Apartments.” I wonder why they just didn’t label it “MapsKrieg?”

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

I got Advance Wars: Days of Ruin from Amazon.com yesterday because it was on sale for like $16. I’d played Advance Wars 2 and it was pretty cool, and I skipped Advance Wars Dual Strike.

One thing that kind of seemed weird to me for the Advance Wars games was that the fighting always seemed unmotivated. Like here’s some random countries, let’s go to war! Also, the cartoony quality of the graphics led to some weird cognitive dissonance as I led my cute dudes with their tanks off to die in gruesome battle.

Days of Ruin sort of fixes this by making the graphics more gritty and changing the setting to a post-apocalyptic world. So everyone is fighting for food and survival instead of just for the hell of it. Unfortunately, the setting is not like Mad Max, where everyone is hoarding hockey pads and crossbows and gas. Seriously, you have factories that make tanks, but you can’t make food!? Get your priorities straight!!!

So far, it’s been pretty fun, but the challenge level just seems really low. I think I probably just need to complete some more missions and get further in the game.

Filezilla: Update Whore

I actually like Filezilla as a good, free open source FTP client. But man, does it whore for upgrades! It seems like every single time I open the program, it’s got some kind of upgrade it wants to download.

Seriously, Filezilla is an FTP client. FTP is just a file transfer protocol (whoa, that’s what FTP stands for!). As far as I know, FTP really hasn’t changed much in the past few years. Oh, sure, we’ve got SFTP and FTP over SSL and stuff, but c’mon, how often do you really need to update the core software for FTP!?

What’s that? There’s a way to turn off automatic updates? Okay. But I can’t stand not having the latest version of any software! What’s a nerd to do?

Also, Filezilla: I don’t need to be told to send all bug reports to you every time I update the software. I got that the first time…