Announcements
We've Moved Again!
Digitalsimulacra.com now has its own virtual dedicated server. This should help performance and make it quicker and easier to resolve any issues that come up.
News
Dell Laptop Spontaneous Combustion
smokin' hot!
Do you have a Dell Laptop? If so, look at the model number (it might be on the bottom) and compare it to this list of models with recalled batteries. These batteries can overheat and catch on fire.
There have been several articles over the past several weeks about laptop batteries catching on fire, after a Dell burst into flames at a conference in Japan. This is the largest computer recall in history, affecting over 4 million laptops. Dell previously announced a smaller battery recall in December 2005.
Dell has set up a new web site just to help you find out if your battery might explode. If so, they recommend you remove the battery from your laptop immediately and use your laptop only with the AC adapter until your replacement battery arrives.
Digg Down This Morning
Digg was down for a few minutes this morning, and I thought this was the best "system down" page I've seen since the 404 Doodoo Error from homestarrunner.com.
(Click the image to view a larger version.)
I'm trying out Flickr for image hosting, since I have limited space on this site. If it works well, I'll probably use it for all the images on this site. I think it might be bandwidth-limited though, so that might be a problem if enough people view it.
Sage: an RSS and Atom Reader for Firefox
I've been trying out Sage lately, and it does a great job of turning Firefox into an RSS/Atom reader. You get a list of all your feeds in a sidebar, and clicking on one brings up a nicely-formatted view of the latest news. It's a surprisingly nice way to read new mail from your Gmail inbox, because it loads a lot faster than the regular interface. Of course, it's also a great way to keep up with news and podcasts.
It's also pretty easy to create your own stylesheets for Sage. Here's one based on the style of this site. Just extract the zip file somewhere and point Sage at the CSS file.
Disk Recovery
I have posted a new article describing how to repair a dead hard drive by replacing its controller circuit board. I had to do this after my main drive was killed by a faulty power supply. The process is really pretty intuitive if you're used to dealing with drives and circuit boards, but if not, this article might help.
... BTW, the articles page is up.
Google Releases New Extensions for Firefox
Google has released two new extensions for Firefox (in addition to the Google Toolbar for Firefox that already exists):
The Blogger Web Comments for Firefox extension, which allows you to blog sites and see what other bloggers have said about a site -- without leaving the page -- and probably more importantly, the Google Safe Browsing for Firefox extension. This alerts users if the site they are browsing is a suspected phishing site. If you're the person your friends and family rely on for computer support and/or advice, I suggest you recommend they install this extension (since you've already got them using Firefox, right?).