Okay, so you know that the Zombie Apocalypse is coming, and probably sooner rather than later, right?  Well, all the real geeks out there are preparing, and we sure hope that you know what the most important thing on your to-do list should be.  That’s right…Water.  However, somewhere on that post-apocalyptic survival list is going to be clean clothes, right?  I mean, you aren’t going to be able to hold up a good zombie fight if they can smell you a mile away, even if they have dead sensory organs!  Let’s face it, you need to be able to make some laundry detergent that you can use on the cheap, and we have found a nice way to do it.  It works really well too!

First, let me explain why I decided to try this home-brewed lovely laundry soap.  I really do believe that a large-scale disaster may be on its way, and feel that it is important to prepare so as to protect my family and hopefully others that are close to me.  We may be looking at a zombie apocalypse (most likely), worldwide economic collapse (less likely), national economic collapse (more likely), or more localized large-scale SHTF situation (highly likely) such as the earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina, massive flooding, etc.  My point is, when the Sh*t Hits The Fan (SHTF for those that haven’t heard) I want to be ready to survive.  And having clean clothes is part of it…Seriously, good hygiene will keep you alive longer than rotten clothes, especially against those freakishly fast zombies!

Now, where did I find the recipe for such a great homemade laundry soap?  I Googled it!  There are several recipes on the internet that can point you in the right direction.  Some are liquid, while others are powders.  Yes, you CAN make liquid detergent, it just might not be as pretty as what you are used to using.  I personally prefer using the powder since I can store more of it in a smaller space.  You can experiment with your own concoctions until you have a homemade laundry detergent that is up to your own standards.  However, I have to give credit where it is due.  I want to give thanks to Yankeeprepper on his Youtube channel for pointing out a nice site called soapsgonebuy.  These guys have really figured out what to do with those old soaps that we see still sitting on the laundry aisle.

Here is the recipe I used:

• 1 cup of finely grated Fels Naptha laundry soap (1 bar)
• 1/2 cup 20 mule team Borax
• 1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda (NOT baking soda)

Grind the bar using a cheese grater (then I used my hands to pulverize it into a powder-like substance).  Next mix all 3 ingredients and POW!  You have laundry soap.  Use 1 Tablespoon for regular loads, 2 for large or soiled loads and 3 for huge loads or really heavily soiled large loads.  If you want to put in some of your custom zombie repellent, then that is up to you.  However, I recommend putting it in during the rinse cycle.  It stays with the clothes better.

My local grocery store had the ingredients for cheaper, so sorry bout that soapsgonebuy!  However, I have read that many people are having an issue finding Fels Naptha laundry soap.  If you have trouble finding it, then feel free to order from soapsgonebuy.  This recipe, along with others like it, can be found on their website.  Of course, you can also order from them if you want to support their soap-making efforts.  I’m sure they would appreciate your patronage.

Now the important part, how well does this old-fangled soap work on clothes?  I have made some, and have tried it.  I can tell you that it works really well!  I placed some mega nasty yard clothes in the wash and put in a couple of tablespoons of my home-brewed laundry soap.  After a regular wash cycle they were pristine and beautiful.  They smelled clean too!  Not like heavy laundry perfumes, but just plain old clean.  Also, the soapsgonebuy guys were right, you don’t really need softener any more after using this stuff.

What are the main benefits to using your own soap?  Cost is the biggest!  It costs me PENNIES to wash my clothes now.  PENNIES!  I can’t argue with anyone on this one.  It has become such a money saver for our household, and now I can walk around smelling like clean, rather than smelling like flowers.  Also, I can store a LOT of this soap in a very small area.  This means that in between zombie fights I can get some laundry done and keep the smells down.  That should help keep the zombies from being attracted to my stink and allow my repellant work to its fullest extent.

Now for a word of caution:  Don’t play around with the stuff in those boxes (Borax and Washing Soda).  They are all-natural products, but they are good in laundry for a reason…because they are strong!  Also, I have found that the soap dissolves the best on at least warm water.  Once in a while the cold water leaves small granules of soap un-dissolved on my clothes, so I’ve started using warm water for washing.

Other tips that I’ve ready include putting the soap in a plastic zipper bag and then into the freezer to make it easier to grate.  The zipper bag is to keep it from making your food smell like soap.  Also, try using a food processor with a grater disk to make it much easier.  Just remember to learn how to do it by hand because in an SHTF situation you may not have electricity.  Not to mention it will give you a bit of a workout which will make you stronger.  Bigger muscles mean more zombie ass-kicking power!

I’ve thought about using a salad grater, you know, the one that has the hand crank?  If anyone out there has tried using one of those, let us know.  So now you know how to make your own laundry detergent in case of the zombie apocalypse.  Enjoy!

For those of you that have not heard, you can now get Netflix on your Wii!

All you have to do in order to get your disk is go to your Netflix home page and login.  Once you are there, you will need to go to Your Account & Help.  This will take you to your account page.  Once you are there, look for the section labeled “Watching Instantly On Your TV Or Computer.”

Once you are there, click on “Watch instantly via Wii” and get to this page:

Then simply follow the directions to get your Netflix Wii disk.  Once you get the disk, just start it up and follow the directions to get your access code.  If you go back to this page, you can follow the link to the activation page where you can enter your code.  Once that is done, sit back with your favorite popcorn and enjoy the flix!  Just don’t feed that geek too much :)

Image Courtesy of NASA TV

Dubbed STS-132, this mission is geared for the delivery of a Russian mini research module, along with supplies.  I’ve been lucky enough to live next to the space center, so I have seen a lot of Shuttle launches; however, they never cease to amaze me.  They also do not ever seem to launch when they are supposed to, so seeing Atlantis make way on time is really a nice surprise.

It really is going to be a sad day when NASA stops flying these birds.

See the video of the launch below.

I’m not going to go down into the gritty science of how ultracapacitors work, but would rather explain why this is so important to our thriving age of technology.  For those science geeks who would really like to delve into the matrix, you can check out the stats at ultracapacitors.org and the Electric Double-Layer Capacitor article at Wikipedia.  What I will tell you is that ultracapacitors are in line to replace the every-day battery in our modern electronic devices.

Coleman FlashcellColeman, one of the worlds leading manufacturer of nifty gadgetry and camping stuffs, has put together one of the world’s first ultracapacitor gadgets for all the real power tool geeks out there.  Advertising a charge time of about 90 seconds (yeah, that’s right 90 seconds) and a life of about 30 minutes.  Now we haven’t received ours yet, but how freaking awesome is it to be able to put together that new rig you’ve been dying to buy, dismantle the old one, and charge your nifty powered ultracapacitor screwdriver in the time it takes to grab a drink of water?  I say that this is going to be one of the new best geek tools in any tech’s toolbox.  At the time of this article, you can Coleman Flashcell Chargerpick yours up at Amazon.com for around $32 plus shipping.  Keep in mind that according to a Popular Mechanics article, this little baby only goes through about 22 screws before it is time to recharge (need i remind you to go get a drink?).  Still, it only takes 90 seconds to recharge, so stop your whining!

In addition to household screw guns, ultracapacitors may be a good alternative for laptop and cell phone batteries.  Although there are still some kinks to work out, ultracapacitors may be the best technology in line to replace our trusty lithium-ion, ni-cad, and lead-acid batteries.  Imagine being able to charge that laptop in just a few minutes, then enjoy hours of fun surfing the web, playing games, facebooking, or whatever your kind does on the information super highway.

MIT Car WireThe guys over at MIT are already working on making ultracapacitors a viable alternative for HEV’s or Hybrid-Electric Vehicles.  Yep, you got it!  Park your awesome HEV in the garage and plug it in to charge that bad boy over night.  With ultracapacitor technology, “filling up” is even possible.  Gas stations would inevitably become service stations again, since gas would be the minority with these new batteries powering your shiny new car.  Don’t expect a real fast fill-up at home though.  In order to charge the capacitors to full you would have to have some equipment installed in your garage that stepped up the voltage to a level that would be useful for your car.  Service stations would likely have some sort of way to offer the higher voltages required to charge your car quickly though.  Who wants to spend hours at the pump waiting for the gauge to reach “full” when we are so used to filling up in a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, ultracapacitors are probably a long way off from fully replacing the batteries we know of today, but with research continuing, it may not be long before our copper-tops become ultra-tops.  Keep on banging that drum Mr. Bunny!  It will be beautiful music when ultracapacitors hit the shelves for sale.

Ares I-X Launch

It seems that the primary issue that NASA had with the Ares I-X was the weather.  Unlike the Space Shuttle, which is coated with a protective layer to help reduce the chance of static buildup, the Ares I-X had no such coating yet.  If the rocket were to go through clouds, the buildup of static electricity could form a halo around the rocket which could interfere with NASA’s ability to communicate with it and therefore could have caused an issue with guidance and data retrieval.

Luckily, we had a break in the weather and the sky was the limit.  Literally, this flight was not intended to get the rocket into orbit, but rather to send it high enough to test several systems in the Ares I-X that are necessary for manned flight.  After the apex of the flight, the Ares I-X broke stages allowing the booster and main engine segment to parachute back down into the Atlantic ocean for recovery.

Overall, I would say that the mission was successful, and we hope to see more from NASA’s dwindling funds.  Let’s just hope that the Obama crew see fit to keep things rolling over there.

For all you space geeks out there, get ready to blast-off with Ares I-X this Tuesday, October 27, 2009.  NASA plans to launch its new launch vehicle to see how she flies.  The launch window is currently between 8 A.M. and 12 P.M. EST, but as always, be prepared for a scrub since Florida weather is, well, Florida weather.

The Ares class rockets are NASA’s new design for a space launch platform which are supposed to replace the current space shuttle program that is supposed to be coming to an end in 2010.  However, they have been getting a lot of gruff about this new program, and frankly, I’m worried.

There are pulls in both directions, but the negative arguments are that the Ares program will not hit primetime fast enough to replace the Spaceshuttle successfully.  Others are saying that NASA should be worried less about the moon and should start shooting for other Sol objects, such as asteroids and Mars.

I’m still confused as to why we have not commercialised the industry more, trying to work towards making space flight available to those that are willing to pay the price.  This could help generate an offset so as to free up more government dollars to use towards world peace, or whatever.  Obviously there must be some reason why this has not been done yet, but it was a thought none the less.

What are your thoughts?

Hulu

It looks like Hulu may be charging some kind of subscription fee in the very near future.  As early as 2010, the owners of Hulu may begin charging its customers for providing the beloved content that they have so generously shown in exchange for ad exposures.  “It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online,” said Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman of News Corp, according to the article at Broadcasting & Cable.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not entirely sure that I am willing to pay for cable, a dvr, the internet AND online broadcast media that is less than perfect quality.  I don’t know if this will be a bad blow to Hulu’s fan base or not, but I can tell you that the quality of the product should definitely be improved before they try to charge for substandard content.  We all hate to see it happen, but this may be the last year for free Hulu content.

Tell us what you think.  Are you willing to pay for Hulu?

Microsoft Security Essentials

If you haven’t heard already, Microsoft has officially released its free antivirus and antispyware utility called Microsoft Security Essentials.  You can get your copy at the Security Essentials page at Microsoft’s website.  Why are we bringing this up?  Because, too many machines are infected nowadays, and there just aren’t enough people willing to pay the every-increasing prices of commercial antimalware.  This new package from Microsoft is fast becoming the tech world’s first line of defense against the war against malware.

The three best parts about Microsoft Security Essentials?  One, it is FREE to consumers.  Two, it is actually pretty good at doing what it does…protecting your system.  Three, it is FREE to consumers!  No registrations, serials, or anything else.  As long as you have a legit copy of windows installed, you just download Microsoft Security Essentials and install it on your machine.  Voila!

I have to say, however, that the real first line of defense against malware is the person sitting behind the screen and keyboard.  That’s right… YOU!  I have spent the better part of my life cleaning up customers’ systems that are absolutely crawling with nasties.  They always like to ask how they got infected.  After I reveal how dangerous file sharing engines like Limewire, Kazaa, Bearshare, etc. are, they always act surprised.  But while I am rumaging through their systems, guess what I find… Yep.  Usually some P2P engine chugging away.

There are obviously other vectors that are a bit less obvious, such as email, web surfing, etc.  These also pose a risk and ANYBODY is fair game on the web.  The number 1 rule(s) of thumb:  Never click links in emails, and if a website opens a window telling you that you have malware, close the window, don’t click buttons.  There are other rules to go along with this, but those are the basics.

Enough about prevention, now lets get back to Microsoft Security Essentials.  The scanning is definitely slow since it uses less heuristics and more signature scanning; however, this can be beneficial in reducing the number of false-positives.  In other words, your antivirus will complain less about legit files (thinking they are malware).  The negative, long scan times.  So as long as you schedule scans to occur during long periods where you will be away from the ole keyboard for a while, then no problem.

The other thing I liked about Security Essentials is that it is WAY less in-your-face than many other products.  So many times I have been blasting away bad guys, or going through the latest instance when BAM!  My antimalware engine pops something up that minimizes my game whilst I am swiftly killed and quickly get pissed.  Microsoft Security Essentials is much more quiet.  No more “I’m Updating”, “I’m scanning”, “I exist” going on in the lower-right of your screen.  Just a little icon that moves from time-to-time.

I have to say, with Microsoft Security Essentials hitting the market at the price point of FREE, it is definitely looking to change the way the antivirus business is run.  I wonder how McAfee, Symantec, and Trend are going to react.  Because this little sandbox just got real interesting.

Now, go grab yourself a copy at http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/ and try it out.  If you already have an antivirus package installed, then hold off until your subscription expires before you uninstall.  We all know how difficult it can be trying to find that old activation key.  Just make sure you uninstall your existing antivirus before installing this one.  They tend to fight over each other if you don’t.

Let us know what you think of it.  Best of all, enjoy!

Roku DVP

After spending over $900 on a highly optimized, finely tuned, hardly functional home media pc, I read about this little baby.  The Roku is basically a tiny home media pc without the home pc part.  It lets you directly watch your instant Netflix queue, Amazon video on demand, and more.  To put it simply, this little box is what the internet video revolution is waiting for.

Priced at $99 from Roku.com the Roku Digital Video Player (DVP) packs a heafty punch supporting either wired lan or wireless G including WPA and WPA2 support.  It also has outputs for s-video, component, composite and even HDMI.  If you are looking for a way to bring your internet video stream to your TV, this little box will allow you to do so for about the cost of the processor in that custom-build home media PC.

Unfortunately, the Roku only supports 720p and stereo output, which is pretty much all you can find online anyway, but what a way to bring the movies to your TV without the crazy hassle of a media pc.  Be prepared to buy the video cables as well, since they don’t come standard.  Also, you still need to spend the money to get a Netflix account if you don’t already have one.  Priced at about $9 / month is worth it to get some serious online titles.  You still get your 1 dvd at-a-time, and can use this guy to watch other stuff while you are waiting for the snail mail to deliver your latest hit.  Oh, and make sure to head over to the PaulTech Network to take a look at their review.  We would like to thank them for the heads-up and a nice pic to go with the story.

There is rumor that a newer version that will support wireless-n is on the way, but my guess is that the price point may be a bit higher.  We won’t know for sure until some tech blurb catches a leak from the company, but we’ll keep our eyes and ears open.

Overall, I would say that the Roku is a decent step forward for becoming a completely analog-free society.  How many more things can we shove down the internets tubes?  Let’s just keep pushing the envelope and find out!

For those geeks out there that are not familiar with Ubuntu, I welcome you to take a look-see to find a fantastic operating system that is coming very close to competing with Windows and OS X.  Ubuntu is one of many distributions of the Linux operating system that, in my honest opinion, has become a powerful contender amongst the huge list of OS competitors available on the market.  The best part is the price:  FREE!  What makes Ubuntu such a powerful competitor is that there is a dedicated team of code monkeys that are devoted to a strict deployment schedule for Ubuntu.  They release major versions of this power house every April and October each year, adding tons of new features with each release.  If you want to take a shot at upgrading your OS to something that is really worth checking out, head on over to the Ubuntu Main Page and get your copy.  If you are not thrilled about replacing your main PC, then give Wubi a try.  Wubi allows you to download and install Ubuntu next to windows without actually rewriting any partition information, which means you can actually uninstall it if it doesn’t suit your fancy.  Seriously, check it out!

Now for the Ubuntu geeks on the market… Although there is nothing extraordinarily pressing about the new release coming up, we found a handful of interesting behind-the-scene changes that are going to change the way we do Ubuntu.

If you want to skip the hubub, just follow the direct link to the Ubuntu 9.10 features page and take a look for yourself.

To kick things off, the Ubuntu team is integrating a new feature called Upstart, which is a new startup platform that handles the starting of system processes and services during the boot process.  They are also sprucing up the boot process a bit to improve eye-appeal.  In addition, GRUB 2 will be the default boot loader for this release.

Another under-the-hood improvement to the Ubuntu community is the integration of the ext4 filesystem in this distribution.  The prior release also included this format, but now it will be the default choice for a new install.  The ext4 filesystem is supposed to be an improvement to the traditional ext3 filesystem, promising better journaling, recovery, and performance.  Of course, only time will tell.

As far as user-interface changes, the “Add/Remove” feature will be replaced with the Ubuntu Software Center which is supposed to improve the interface for managing software.  They are also upgrading both the Linux kernel and Gnome to their latest versions.  We also thought that the addition of a virtual Execute-Disable feature for machines that do not have supporting hardware was a nice addition.  This will help to improve security for users of older hardware.

There are several other changes that we are not going into, mainly because they will not likely be noticed by the public at large, but feel free to check out the Ubuntu 9.10 features page to see the specifics.  Don’t forget to look at the known bugs so you can be up-to-par on the problems you might run into.

To close, we wanted to make sure and mention what is probably the most important change with Ubuntu Karmic Koala, and that is the new desktop background that comes out with each release.  We know that you will want to upgrade exclusively to get this wonderful visual experience.  Don’t deny it, the backgrounds are where it is all at!

If you can’t wait to get a taste, head on over to the 9.10 download page and grab the beta, just make sure you contribute to the bug reports if you run across any.  Or, if you are a sissy, feel free to wait until the final release is available and grab yourself a copy.  Either way, drop a comment and let everyone know how your experience was.

Windows 7

Well, the end of our long wait for this much-needed “repair” of the Windows Vista operating system is almost over.  Scheduled to launch October 22, 2009, Windows 7 is looking more and more like the solution that people will actually buy, instead of something that they are forced to endure on their new Dell.

There are blogs a-plenty that can’t stop talking about how great Windows 7 is and how they cannot wait for it to come out.  I am not trying to be pesimistic, but I think that jumping ship so quickly to such a new OS might be a dangerous game to play.  For those that know me, I tend to think about security over form and function.  With anything this new, there are bound to be problems right out of the gate.

On the lighter side, Vista has now been around long enough to have a few dings cleaned up.  I know it is nowhere near as solid as what XP has become, but it is beginning to show gentle signs of maturation.  This is GREAT for Windows 7 lovers because it means that when Windows 7 launches, it will not be quite as vulnerable as when Vista launched, considering they are both built on relatively the same code.

In the end, I kind of wish that Microsoft would have just held off a bit for the Vista launch and deployed the Windows 7 package the way it is, finished.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t have had as strong an impact on the computing world.  The massive failure of Vista is what has amplified the Windows 7 launch, sending its spectators into untold amounts of elevated euphoria.

Regardless of how the commercial game was played, I still think that Windows 7 might actually be the next most favored Microsoft OS for geeks.  Don’t worry, I’m not putting away my Ubuntu Linux box any time soon.  That said, I’ve already got my copy of Windows 7, and I like it… Alot!