I recently did a lot of googling about how to use my ATI Radeon HD 3300 integrated graphics card at the same time as my nVidia 8600 GTS discrete graphics card at the same time. The problem is, my motherboard (the BioStar TA790GX 128M) supports integrated + discrete card usage…only with ATI cards. I don’t have an ATI graphics card, and didn’t want to buy one.

This hasn’t been a problem from my two-monitor setup because the 8600GTS easily powers two monitors, but I recently ordered an upgraded monitor (24″ Dell S2409W), and I didn’t want to have to ditch my old 17″ LCD. Lots of googling, and the result is all the same: the TA790GX turns off the onboard graphics card automatically if an nVidia card is detected.

Well, my motherboard does support crossfire with 2 PCI-express slots, so I got to wondering. What if I put my graphics card not in the primary slot, but in the secondary slot? Sure, it will only run at x8 speed, but it’s already PCI-express 2.0, and the lower bandwidth is not likely to hurt my middle-of-the-road graphics card anyways.

Swap it out. Boot it up. Windows 7 recognizes TWO graphics cards from different manufacturers, automatically installs the drivers for the ATI card, and asks to reboot. Reboot.

Viola! It’s done! Hybrid graphics on an ATI motherboard with an nVidia graphics card! Hope someone finds this to be helpful.

Note: apparently, Vista will not work with this. XP may, but I’m not sure. Windows 7 definitely does. I tell you, I’m loving Windows 7!

I’m trying to find out what the performance specs on Sam’s Club Member’s Mark batteries is–the best I’ve got so far is some hearsay from a forum post about them being made by Duracell.

BUT, in my search I found a post discussing rechargables vs. alkalines, claiming that 1 AA could save you up to $500. The post is interesting, but bears some observations.

1. Energizers might cost you $1/each in the grocery store, but a 48 pack of AA batteries is $10 at Sam’s (confirmed by me today) — that’s about $0.21/battery, and means your max savings is down to about $100/battery
2. At $3 vs. $0.21, you’re not saving any money until you recharge the 15th time: saving $100 is only going to happen if you actually recharge that single AA battery 500 times.
3. Rechargeable batteries eventually lose capacity. I’m going to assume that they’re relatively useless after three years of use. (Just look at your cellphone battery) You COULD go on using them, and you might, but they’re not going to last long enough to be worth your while.
4. What are you going to do while your batteries are recharging? You’re still going to end up sticking alkalines in your devices every once in a while to tide you over, whether that be for 1/2 hour or 14 hours, depending on your charger–so, your savings will be less than indicated.

OK, so what does that look like then?

1. Remote control:
   • Average time to change batteries? Maybe twice a year.
   • Time to savings: 7 years
   • Capacity of rechargable batteries after 7 years (if they even work after 7 years)? 0
   • Savings: $0
2. Battery-hogging Wireless Mouse (2xAA):
   • Average time to change batteries? Once a week
   • Time to savings: 4 months
   • Useful battery life: 3 years (150 actual charge cycles)
   • Savings (life of 1 set of 2 rechargeables): $57
3. Clock (1xAA):
   • Average time to change batteries? Maybe once a year.
   • Time to savings: 14 years
   • Capacity of rechargable batteries after 7 years? 0
   • Savings: $-1.53
4. Wii Controller (2xAA):
   • Average replacement? (@25 hrs of gameplay = between 3 – 30 days)
   • Time to savings: 42 – 196 days
   • Useful battery life: 3 years (between 36 – 365 charges)
   • Savings: $15 – $150

Bottom line: some things are worth using rechargeables for. Some things aren’t. $500 in savings per battery is a bit sensationalistic though–it’s more likely you’ll see $50-100 in savings over 3-5 years per battery if you use them consistently and vigorously: and that assumes that the rechargeables last as long as the Alkalines do, which may or may not be true depending on usage.

It’s also interesting to note that some things (like Wii Controllers) may be worth using both for. Let’s say you have kids who play 24/7 with two controllers, but you have two controllers for the parents or friends to use, which get used maybe 4 hours a week. It’s going to take you 2 years of use to justify buying rechargeables for the mostly-unused controllers, assuming they get consistent weekly usage. If they’re not going to get that kind of use for more than 2 years, use alkalines for the rarely-used devices, and stick rechargeables in the others.

Thanks to the Always Frugal lady though for bringing it up again! Even at dirt-cheap $10 for 48 AA’s at Sam’s, I probably should invest in a rechargeable system for two Wii controllers. Just don’t go counting $100-500 in savings per battery as you pick up rechargeables for every electronic device in your household!

Having trouble installing Win7 x64 (Windows 7 64-bit) on your mac? Keep getting a Select CD-ROM Boot Type” message when you go to install? Boot Camp have you pulling your hair out?

Some googling reveals the answer over at Jowie.com, but it’s a little confusing to know exactly where to start. Hopefully this step-by-step tutorial makes it idiot-proof. If you need pictures, Jowie’s site has some nice screenshots.

So, without further ado, install Windows 7 (x64) on your Mac (specifically, I’ve done this for a mac mini) in 7 easy steps!

Step 1: Download and install ImgBurn
Step 2: Insert your Windows 7 Install DVD, OR mount your .iso file with Daemon Tools Lite.
Step 3: Extract your boot image:

• Using ImgBurn, go to “Build” mode
• Select the Advanced Tab
• Under that, select the “Bootable Disc” tab
• Select your DVD drive at the bottom and hit the disk icon. If it asks you if you want to keep those settings, tell it “yes”

Step 4: Add your disk to your new disc image

• On the left side, click the folder icon in the “Source” section and browse to select your Windows 7 Install DVD (Just select the actual drive, no files or folders inside it)
• Hit ok.

Step 5: Verify build settings

• Click the options tab on the right.
• System should say ISO9660 + UDF, Revision 1.02
• Click the Advanced tab again
• Click the Restrictions Tab
• Select “Level X – 219 Characters”
• Select ALL 4 checkboxes below
• Click the “Bootable Disc” Tab again
• Make sure “Make image bootable” is checked
• Emulation Type: None (Custom)
• Boot Image: (should already be selected if you told it to use those settings. If not, select the .ima file you saved in Step 3)
• Sectors to Load: 8 (if you’re using Vista x64, it should be 4)

Step 6: Build your new iso

• Enter a destination for your new ISO on the left. (Use the folder icon to the next of the dropdown, or enter a filename in manually)
• Click the big folder pointing at a disc document at the bottom to create your new image!
• If it asks about a Volume name, just hit “OK”

Step 7: Burn your new iso.

• Switch to burn mode.
• Select your NEW .iso file (don’t accidentally use your old iso!)
• Select your destination blank DVD

Click the burn button.

Tada! Pop that disc into your mac mini, or imac, or macbook, or mac pro, or whatever, and you’re set! Welcome to Windows 7!

Back at the end of 2005 I was looking for cheap shared webhosting. If you’ve ever been in the market for such a commodity, you’ll know it’s a complete crap shoot: there’s about 40,000 options that all look the same, cost the same, and yet offer widely varying levels of service and support.

All of them have complainers out there moaning about some issue or another, because frankly, people only talk about stuff when bad things happen.

…or, when good things happen!

Long story short, I chose webhostingbuzz for my shared web hosting, because it was loaded with features and extremely reasonably priced. Good choice.

1. I got great service at a great price. Been with them since about December of 2005, if that says anything. Perhaps more telling, I also set up a couple of websites I built for a client on WHB (The Bookends & The Great Exchange)
2. I just won an iPod touch from them! Yes, my friends, they held a sweepstakes and I won an iPod Touch. As if I wasn’t happy enough already with their service, I am now the happiest WHB customer out there

All that to say, if you’re looking for shared hosting, virtual private servers, or even a dedicated server, you definitely want to check out WebHostingBuzz.

If you haven’t heard it from about 1,000 people already, Microsoft made the Upgrade version of Windows 7 Available for pre-order today at less than half the suggested retail price. It ships October 22, and the pre-order price is available only until July 11, or “while supplies last,” whatever that means.

Order it from amazon now:

Windows 7 Premium Upgrade – $49 (Reg. $119)

Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade – $99 (Reg $219)

What are you waiting for? This will probably run faster than XP if you’re still running it, and certainly faster than Vista. Get it cheap before supplies run out and you’re back in 6 months paying $119/219 for it.

(Well, sort of).

I’ve been coding a new template for a new venture I’ll be embarking on over this summer break, and I wanted it to look all nice with alpha’d png images. IE6 hates those things.

Despite the fact that it probably won’t matter (most of my traffic these days is Firefox, and the direction I’ll be headed is for more tech-savvy and mac users), I hate leaving little things untended.

So…. I looked, and looked, and looked for a script that might work for my pngs in IE6. Supersleight wasn’t flexible enough, (the jQuery plugin would have done the trick, but for it for some reason it did not work at all for me) and so I kept looking…

Some dude made it work. Nicely. Check it out if you’re frustrated with other solutions.

IE6 PNG fix

It claims to work even for repeating backgrounds, but I haven’t tested that. I did verify that it doesn’t work well for backgrounds on tr and td elements.

Enjoy!