The Engineering Cafe

GITW 2012

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:11:28 -0500

Will there be one? It looks there is absolutely no interest in Geeks in the Woods this year. It's sad. We were older than Anime Central, yet Anime Central will outlive us.

GITW 2010

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:46:29 -0600

Get out your long underwear� The Geeks take to the woods early this year in da� U P. Mark your calendars and prepare for a geeky weekend in the woods (and possibly the snow). When you miss a GITW trip, you really miss a lot. Don�t let this opportunity pass you by.

GITW XIII

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:45:00 -0500

Geeks RETURN to the woods May 15-17, 2009

The annual geek camping trip is coming up in May. I'd call it geeks unplugged, but we are far from unplugged.

In like a geek

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:13:08 -0600

The new year has arrived, and looking in the rear view mirror we saw the same EC pattern we always see.� After the Campout we slow down to a near halt through the end of the year.� As the new year begins we hit the ground running like we always do with geeky enthusiasm. (Of course, "hitting the ground running" has been debunked by the Mythbusters.)

So we begin our normal yearly routine with a January EC. I hope that the new year finds everyone happy, healthy and prosperous.

Come to this months EC for exciting conversations, stories, or come just to scrape the cromarty off the ketchup bottles.

GITW'08 Changed to June

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:18:08 -0500

Hey Campers, It looks like more people can make it on the June date, so we are officially changing the GITW date to JUNE 20,21,22. This is the weekend after Father's day. (and the first weekend of Summer) Just like the old days. Looks like I'll have to find the fog of death. Anyway, now that gives us slightly more time for planning. Please comment on the T-Shirt design, or submit your own if you have other ideas. This year looks to be a geeky experience. (as expected) Come and join the fun, there will be hiking, geocaching, video games (picture Rock Band in the Woods!), 15' fires, great food, geeky discussions, and much much more. RE-Mark your calendars and lets start the planning.

The EC Mourns...

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:10:00 -0600

I was informed of the most unfortunate and sad events. Henry Kusztelak, a long time EC member has passed. His fun and entertaining personality will be missed.

It is with sadness and regret that I must inform you that Henry passed away on Wednesday after
complications following a triple bypass surgery on Monday. Details regarding the wake and funeral follow.
 
 
WAKE: (Sunday)
Skaja Funeral Home
7812 North Milwaukee Avenue
Niles, Illinois (MAP)
Sunday, 4-8PM
 
FUNERAL: (Monday)
9AM at Funeral Home
10:00AM at Our Lady of Ransom Church (8300 N Greenwood Ave, Niles, IL 60714 (847) 823-2550)

 
Sincerely,
 
Edward Kusztelak

GITW 11

Thu, 03 May 2007 09:40:02 -0500

It is that lovely time of year when birds are chirping, insects are hatching and geeks are about to be let loose in the woods. The annual Geeks in the Woods trip looks to be another fun trip this year. We are planning on some canoeing down the Baraboo River and some geocaching. Get your gear together and be ready for some geeky fun.

Blast off to Nippon

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 14:47:00 -0500

Imagine ridding on a flying transport ship for 13 hours and arriving at a large metropolitan area where almost every inch of land is covered with buildings and structures. When you arrive, everyone speaks in a language you cannot understand and all the signs and writings are in symbols that resemble the firing distance of the Death Star. Luckily, however, the aliens are friendly and are willing to help you navigate through their high-tech transportation system. This may sound kind of like your favorite sci-fi movie but it was my recent business trip to Japan. If I hadn�t known better I would have thought I was on another planet, not just another country. It was kind of fun seeing some of the more advanced toilets in the world, and they have really perfected restaurant service. I am, however, glad to back on my own planet.

Pictures:

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 11

Idea for camping??

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:10:47 -0600

Came across this today.

http://graffitiresearchlab.com

http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video

And the how-to w/source

http://muonics.net/blog/index.php?postid=15

Don't hate me Mike, but �

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:14:00 -0600

I had been using a used laptop for quite a while. It became a need to have one for getting work done when I wasn't working at home. Before that, I never really wanted a laptop, thinking I got all the computer I want at home. After a while though, the laptop became a necessity. It also helps multi-task. But my used laptop days came to an abrupt halt when the backlight went bad. The model I had had the backlight as part of the actual monitor. Replacing the monitor part only would have cost $450. So with that in mind, I realized it was time to purchase a brand new laptop.

Ironically enough, the need for a new laptop was only three days after the Microsoft Vista OS came out. I really hadn't been following the Vista development much. I only had heard what was thrown at me from regular news reports. Other than that, I had done no further research. Now I was stuck making a decision of buying a computer with XP or Vista. I decided on Vista. The most important reason was this way I'd know that the computer was already powerful enough to run Vista when the Vista upgrade became a necessity. Today will be my seventh day with Vista. It's been interesting and frustrating week of installations and research. On several occasions, certain programs I definitely wanted installed, simply wouldn't install, while others would install, but not run. EEEK! Impatience got the better of me at first and I simply disregarded the installations for the moment knowing an update would (hopefully) soon be available.

A few installations later, I accidentally realized some interesting messages that I had disregarded earlier. The first of which was the option that I can "attempt" to install the program anyway using some sort of authorization. This came in handy for several programs I needed installed on the laptop. The second message showed me how to change the compatibility of how a program ran. By fooling a few programs to think they were in 98 or XP, I was now able to run them. S'weet.

Vista isn't a drastic change from XP. The change is as noticeable as the difference between 95 and 98. Except for the software compatibility and a few minor features I'm finding daily, it's pretty nice.

With a new computer, it's always nice to have a clean slate to install some new toys and utilities. Earlier in 2006, I found some nice programs from "TheOpenCD" I'd created from a downloadable ISO file. I was talking to Mike (who at the time didn't know I had Vista) about the OpenSource link. He suggested I post the link to this EC site. So I did. At the time I noticed another interesting link from John about "46 Free Utilities". I check the link out and found a few more programs of current and possibly future interest. The 46 utility list is now up to 103, but you have to make an account to see the remaining ones. It's no biggie.

I suggest that you should take a look at the two links listed below. With that many programs to look at, you certainly will not want to spend a day downloading all of them, but it's good to know what's there for when you may run into a situation where you might have a need for one of them cool utilities.

[link:]http://www.theopencd.org/
[link:]http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm
These links are also listed under Utilities on the Web Resources menu.

So, Mike, I apologize for making Bill Gates a few hundred dollars richer, but my needed income made it a necessary purchase.