Important information for everyone! I got fed up with the free server I was using to host the Gamer's Radio .RSS file, so I got a real web page! Please forward all of your Bookmarks to www.Yankidank.com. I have decided to combine both my Gamer's Radio blog and Yankidank Technology blog into the new site. I won't have a chance to produce a radio show until Friday afternoon 09/05/04. But I promise to get the ball rolling soon. I have spent a lot of time preparing the site, but it's still a bit empty. That's where you guys come in. Please contribute to the site! Join the site and contribute your thoughts, photos, whatever you can think of. Soon I will have a new .RSS link. Make sure that you will update it from the Yankidank.com page so that you will be able to get the upcomming episodes.
Be sure to check out the forums and gallery at Yankidank.com they can be found here:
http://www.yankidank.com/forum/
http://www.yankidank.com/gallery/
The Photo Gallery is a little glitchy still when it comes so submissions, but the forum is awaiting some posts!
I will also work on some tutorials for Xbox Mods this December.
Thanks to those who have emailed me with comments and suggestions, I really appreciate it. Hope to hear from you again soon!

I apologize for not updating lately, I spilt Gatorade on my Keyboard a few days ago and had to send off to NewEgg.com for a replacement. I could barely survive those few days without my wireless keyboard, it drove me to the brink of insanity. But now that I have a new one I'm okay.
I spent the better part of the day designing a new web page, that is going to completely change the face of my sites. I am headed in a new direction, in the direction of internet radio broadcasting! I'm hoping to start with broadcasting shows about Games and Consoles, then maybe work my way to a second broadcast focused on Computers and other such technologies.
I discovered an amazing thing today called iPodder. You guys will have to check it out on your own because it's getting close to my bedtime. Basically it lets you gather internet radio broadcasts and it will stick them in iTunes for you. So that you can listen to Personal Blogs, Tech Blogs, News Blogs, or whatever you want on your iPod. It will automatically download new content as it becomes available. I'm already hooked on the show GAMERadio. I plan on making my first Podcast (iPodder Broadcast) similar to that show. I have a lot of game news that I want to get to, but don't have the time with this new site. I will make sure that my first episode will quench your thirst.

DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM NOW!
This is not a suggestion, this is me telling you that you need to download this file now! I just downloaded Google Desktop about twenty minutes ago, and I think it is the greatest thing in the world. I downloaded it, walked away from the computer to get some work done, and when I came back my computer had taken a step to the next level. Google Desktop is EXACTLY what Microsoft has wanted to do for the past 5 years, but never perfected. Instead Microsoft decided to put it off until Longhorn comes around in 2006. Google Desktop categorizes your computer just like how it categorizes web pages. It searches through your files, sorts them out into keywords, stores the files according to date and relevancy, and places it all in an amazing interface just like its online companion. The page that Google presents for the program doesn't do it just. It says that it will sort through your AIM, Outlook, Internet History, Text, Word, Powerpoint, and Excel files. That is only the tip of the iceberg my friend.


Google quickly categorized 19,892 files on my computer within 20 minutes. By the way, it only searches for new items when the computer is idle, so that it won't take up your precious system resources. The result of the system scan looked like this. Pardon the messed up formatting.

Number of items Time of newest item
Total searchable items 19,892 --2:22am
Emails 0 ---
Chats 2 --1:52am
Web history 851 --1:30am
Files 19,039 --2:22am

Then Google seamlessly integrated the search function right into their web page. So that when you use your web browser (it better be Firefox!) you have a "Desktop" tab to search your computer.


When you are reading an AIM conversation, it even gives you a link to "chat with [whomever]", and the link will start aim and bring up an IM to send to the designated person.


I couldn't possible imagine a program more essential for just about any computer user. Whether you are a business person, who needs to keep track of records scattered all over your computer. Or if you're a teenage chatter who wants to check what Jessica said last week about Danny on AIM. There are a million reasons to use Google Desktop, but the one thing that makes me secure about using this program is that it is made by Google. The people who changed the face of search engines, email, blogging, and many other things. And this is going to be the next big thing.

Somehow the Windows Networking Problem has evolved into something tremendously horrible. I was able to get Windows (XP Pro, SP2) to connect to the Xbox by setting the Xbox in the Netgear main ethernet port, then making my computer the slave in any of the 1-4 slave slots. This way, my computer thought that the Xbox was the internet, so windows configured itself to be able to access the Xbox. At this point Windows properly applied itself to the router IP. Only I was not able to talk to the Xbox in this configuration (probably because of a bad router setting), so I removed the ethernet cords and connected the Xbox and computer directly with a Cat-5 cable. When I did this I had a connection with my Xbox up and running for about 30 seconds, then Windows would reconfigure itself to what it thought I wanted (which I don't), and kick me off my Xbox.
So after all of this, I have concluded that the only way to talk to the Xbox, besides Microsoft fixing the problem, is to properly use a router and connect through the router ports. I love how Microsoft thinks that it's best to let the computer configure itself, and completely took away my ability to modify my internet connection. Thanks again Microsoft!
For now, I am going to try to deal with just not connecting to the Xbox, unless if I have an urgent need to fix something. The only items that need to be placed on the hard drive are Nintendo 64 roms and some updated XBMC files. Speaking of which XBMC just upgraded to v. 1.1.0 today!

If you have an iPod, old or new, do yourself a favor and download Ipod Agent right now as you read this article. It is critical that everyone gets this program because it may one days save your very life!...Or at least make your life a tiny bit better.
iPod Agent software allows you to do the folling with your ipod/computer:

* Transfer songs from your iPod to your PC
* Transfer Outlook contacts, appointments, notes, tasks, and mail to your iPod
* Fetch weather forecasts and put it on your iPod
* Fetch RSS news feeds and make them viewable on your iPod
* Fetch local movie showtimes and make them viewable on your iPod
* Fetch daily horoscopes and make them available on your iPod
* Transfer the contents of any folder on your PC to your iPod
* Copy any text file to your iPod
* Create listings of the songs on your iPod in plain text, HTML or CSV formats.



So if you have two computers at home, and want to transfer your music library from one computer to the other, you can easily download the songs from the iPod using iPod Agent. There are lots of fun little things you can do using this software, but I am sticking with the basics (weather forecast, movie showtimes, and news feeds). Check out the iPod Agent website for more information.

I just started a Gmail account, yay! So as soon as I get a chance to test the waters out enough to give a fair review, I will post a review and comparison to Yahoo! Mail. I have a feeling Gmail is going to win.
Also on the horizon, I'm going to mention the Ipod Agent software, which allows you to make the most out of your Ipods. I will also leave some praise of Doom 3, for the PC. When I'm not doing school work, I'm probably playing Doom 3 (or Call of Duty, I love it too!). I have a lot of great Tech stuff I want to post about, but so little time! Well, I'm off for bed this evening. I have been trying to update some minor flaws in the site template, for this site and 2 others that I'm working on. As a side note Blogger supposedly updated their tech support. Have a good night all, and I look forward to posting soon. This weekend at the absolute latest.

Considering that most of my friends are in college, I thought I might do them a favor and forward them to a little program called OurTunes. What does OurTunes do, you might ask? OurTunes allows you to download music from other computers on the same network that are sharing their music through Apple's iTunes. Here's what you need to do to get it to work. First, download iTunes from Apple.com. Second, open up the Preferences and set it to allow your computer to share and look for shared music. Third, download OurTunes. Assuming that you have a recent version of Java running on your computer, which the majority of people will, run OurTunes and iTunes at the same time. OurTunes should automatically find the shared music and let you get downloading immediately. But make sure that you are able to listen to other people's music through iTunes prior to downloading, this way you will know whether you are able to get a connection to the networked computers. This is just a fast runthrough of what to do, for more information about OurTunes or iTunes check out the links.

I have been using different Halo editors for a few months now, and it has been a pain to creat and upload a new map every time that I want to play a new modded level. I am sick and tired of Halo PPF's!
If you agree with me, or if you have never tried to mod Halo on the Xbox, now is the time! With the release of CXE1 + NMP2 with HMPi you can easily play modded levels without the wait. This program installs ontop of Halo on your Hard Drive and allows you to play preloaded maps and mods for Multiplayer. There are some amazing Gametypes too! Check out the Site Here for more information, or download it from below.

I found a temporary fix for the disabled LAN icon, but it uses a router. For those of you who need to fix the LAN icon problem mentioned in the previous article and don't have a router - GET ONE! Routers come in handy!
I was up all night working on this problem, and figured out that there's no way to solve the LAN problem, short of some advanced computer coding and a team of specialists. So I thought to myself, "why not work around it"? And I did.
I luckily had a spare Netgear router sitting around just asking to be used. So I plugged it into my computer and Xbox and went at it. Three hours later I figured what IP address to use and found a temporary solution to my LAN problem. Unfortunately, to access the internet, I have to unplug from the router and I didn't write down the configuration before doing to. So part three of the SP2 Networking article will come this weekend, I will give all of the configurations and perhaps some pictures and a tutorial.
There's always hope when there's a router.

I made the update to Service Pack 2 (SP2) a few weeks ago and
I am just now seeing some pretty big glitches caused by the update. Prior to
updating my computer I had no problem tweaking my network configuration to communicate
with my Xbox. I was able to simple open up my LAN Connection and set the IP
adress manually. But with the recent update, I have completely lost my LAN Connection
icon. When I turned to Google for the answer I found out that this is not just
a simple error caused on a few computers, and it's not something that easy to
fix. In fact, there is no solution for the problem that I know of just yet.
When I wrote Microsoft about the problem, they wrote back to me...

---

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Support Service.
My name is Walter, and I'm glad to work with you. For your reference, the case
ID for this service request is SRZ040923001108.From the case log, I understand
that some network connection cannot be shown in Network Connections. I am sorry
for the inconvenience this issue has caused to you. Please understand Microsoft
releases SP2 to fix known issues and increase the stability and security of
Windows XP, and we have tested as much of the software environment as we could
to improve the performance of SP2. However, we cannot guarantee that SP2 can
install perfectly in all computers because every computer has different software
and hardware environments.Thank you for your understanding. Since from our customers'
feedbacks, a few customers encounter the similar problem as you have encountered.Based
on the current situation, I have reported this issue to our Product Group. Since
SP2 was released recently, our developers are collecting users' feedback and
put emphasis on the information you have provided. At this point, I suggest
we temporarily with SP2 uninstalled and wait for the hotfix which I believe
will be released soon to fix this problem. Please also be assured once there's
a solution to this problem be found on our side, I will notify you as soon as
possible.

---

He then goes on to explain how to remove Service Pack 2 from my
computer. So I removed SP2, which took a very long time to do. Then I found
out that removing SP2 didn't do a thing. It actually made my network even more
messed up and I lost the one visible icon that I had when I had SP2 installed,
the wireless connection. Then I reinstalled SP2 to get my wireless icon back,
and that took longer than uninstalling it. So after installing SP2, uninstalling
it, then reinstalling it, I have been stuck without a connection to my Xbox.
Luckily I'm not at home because I need to alter my LAN to access the internet
from my router. So I can see how big of a problem this can be for some people.

I am doing my best to try to resolve the issue on my own, because
Microsoft doesn't help you online, and the Windows XP Help Center is a piece
of crap that only answers basic questions. I have come across several forums
that discuss this problem, but I have yet to find the answer. When I do find
the answer, which I pray will be soon because I can't live much longer without
communicating with my Xbox, I will post an article here and on every forum possible.
If anyone out there comes across this article before I find the answer, please
post the answer as a comment as a favor to others.

 

I found a spectacular site that will create Blog
Buttons for you. All you need to do is pick out the words you wish to use
and the colors. I made two Yankidank buttons that can be found below. The page
I had been using for lots of my sidebar blog buttons has exceeded it's bandwidth
images, and I was being dumb by linking directly to them rather than saving
them to one of my own servers. So now I have a large blank space to the right
side of the page until I am able to find worthy buttons to replace the old ones.
If you have any suggestions for blog button sites, leave a comment below. I
will leave a comment with the former site that hosted the majority of my buttons.
I appologize for not posting in a while, I just started school and I have focused
more on my personal page. I have also had some problems with my computer communicating
with my Xbox, so I can't post many tutorials on new items, even though I really
want to. More on that in the next article.

Girl Version

Boy Version

http://kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/

I recently made the switch from Mozilla to Firefox and I couldn't be happier. About a year ago I made a browser leap from Internet Explorer to Mozilla and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Mozilla's open source framework and tabbed browsing have kept me loyal to Mozilla.org for so long. Just a week ago I made the upgrade from the Mozilla browser to the newest Firefox browser. I had once before attempted to make the switch to Firefox several months before, but Firefox didn't seem polished enough. Today Firefox is years and years ahead of any other browser out there. This is coming from a person who has tested just about every browser with the exception of Safari, but that's only because I haven't had a Macintosh to test.

Here's some specs that will convince you to make the switch to Firefox:
- Open Source Structure
- Tabbed Browsing
- Bulit-in Popup Blocker
- Google Search bar (and "I feel Lucky" style Google Location Bar)
- Customize just about Everything with Themes!
- Spectacular Extensions and Extension Manager

I could not possibly emphasize how great it is to have so many Extensions to add to the Firefox Browser. They Extensions customize the browser to suit you. There are Bible scripture, bandwith tester, IRC client, password generator, translation, image zoom, popup count, and many other extensions. Do yourself a favor and make the Browser switch now if you haven't already.

Get Firefox 0.9 Here
Get Firefox Extensions Here