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©1999, Lockergnome LC. All Rights Reserved. Subscription inquiries are answered below. Content written by Chris Pirillo. Website hosted by DigitalDaze. Taxes suck.


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Lockergnome
02.08.1999 - GnomeREPORT

I was driving in downtown Des Moines the other day and all of a sudden, my car wanted to keep on going (even though my foot wasn't on the accelerator). Needless to say, I was pretty freaked out. I called a tow truck, and in a matter of hours, I was standing next to three confused mechanics. They had no idea what the problem could be; everything looked "okay" under the hood. Well, I could care less what the problem was, I just needed it fixed. It's a 1990 Ford Escort, which was pretty much brand new when I got it (used to be a program car).

So I wound up taking it to the local dealership the next day. The manager told me that they'd be hooking my car up to a computer to diagnose the problems, and there would be a mandatory fee of $60 for doing so. "What!? For hooking it up to a computer?!" It just seemed odd that the computer would be doing "all the work" and I'd have to foot the bill.

My question: are we letting computers do too much work for us? It's nice to see that technology is being used more and more in the workplace, but I believe there are situations where human contact would be a much wiser solution. I like going to my bank and interacting with a human teller. I enjoy walking into a fast food restaurant... well, sometimes. Anyway, just food for thought. Wow, I've mentioned food twice in the last two sentences (now three). I must be hungry.

-- Chris Pirillo        


The Lockergnomie Picture of the Week comes to us from theNOIZ. He's wearing a classic (and no longer available) Lockergnome t-shirt as well as handing another one to Kate Botello of ZD-TV's "The Screen Savers". Thank you very much for representing Lockergnome at last fall's Comdex, dude!


GnomePROGRAM

SuperFassst v1.0 [1.1M] W9x FREE

ftp://207.198.190.129/pub/download/superfassst.exe
http://www.webcelerator.com/superfassst/

Sometimes fast just isn't fast enough; everybody wants to have the quickest computer on the block. Of course, Windows tweaking can take you only so far. The gang over at Acceleration Software have created a program that'll maximize your hard drive's speed. It reported a 277% increase on Joe (which was definitely visible). The program is free, but you'll have to change your "start" page permanently to Homepageware.com (the performance increase makes that change worthwhile). Settings are accessible from your System Tray, and... well, you should be much happier with a SuperFassst system!


GnomeSYSTEM

3Dfx Voodoo2 Reference Drivers v2.1 [1.4M] W9x

http://www.3dfx.com/software/rkv2x6.exe
http://www.3dfx.com/docs/v2_ref_drivers95/v2_ref_drivers95.html

Mr. Bigglesworth's got a Banshee, but if you have a "plain" Voodoo2 chipset and your manufacturer's drivers are causing you headaches, think about using these puppies. Granted, they're not guaranteed to work perfectly with your card, but they're the reference drivers which your manufacturer should be basing their driver support on.


GnomeCANDY

MikWorks Portrait Icons

http://www.raidway.ne.jp/~inose/

Photorealism is a great thing, especially when it comes to multimedia on your computer. However, there aren't very many photorealistic icons out there. Lucky for us, MikWorks has created and compiled some outstanding collections (most of which are portraits of human faces). He's got several Soccer-related icons (popular players from Brazil & other teams), The Eagles, Doobies, The Band, ABB, Clapton, Grateful Dead, as well as (everybody's favorite) Star Wars mug shots. Be sure to check out his "Movie Trailer" icons, too!


GnomeFAVORITE

floach.pimpin.net

http://floach.pimpin.net/

I believe (but don't quote me on this) that one of this site's maintainers is a Lockergnomie. It may have an odd URL, but its contents are most definitely top notch. It's more for the advanced user, but if you want to start getting into Desktop and system customization, this is an outstanding place to find the latest gadgets. They've got the scoop on Dimension, EVWM, E-Sense, LiteStep, OpenView, Reveal, and other killer utilities (for use with or without the alternative shells). My heart's in tweak heaven!


GnomeDESKTOP

FONT: Sischu [50k]

http://members.tripod.com/rafiweb/myfonts/sischu.zip
http://www.granis.net/rafi/workplace/fonts/

My creative juices just aren't flowing tonight (must have something to do with the weather). They say winter is supposed to be more depressing, but to tell you the truth, I find it one of the more comforting seasons. There are no thunderstorms, which makes Mr. Bigglesworth extremely happy. And when Mr. Bigglesworth's happy, I'm happy. Besides, I hate it when the worms come out of the ground after it rains... they smell funny and I hate stepping on them. Give me snowflakes any day...


GnomeTIP

So many of you were pleased when I featured that one free public news server. Well, Lockergnomie Tayo Kaufman discovered a page for those of you who want more to choose from: http://jammed.com/~newzbot/ -- if your ISP carries only a couple of newsgroups (and you hunger for more) you might want to check out the public servers listed on this page. If you've never visited a newsgroup, you're missing out on one of the Internet's first communities. Heck, while your newsreader is fired up, be sure swing by news.lockergnome.com to meet other Lockergnomies!