Mercwear.com – Curtis Morris

Four Words:
Go see this movie

Cast: Jiang Wen , Zhang Ziyi , Tony Leung , Donnie Yen , Jet Li , Maggie Cheung
Director: Zhang Yimou , Christopher Doyle
Screenwriter: Zhang Yimou
Locations: China
Distributor: Bejing New Picture Distribution Company, Miramax Films (LA)

Watch the trailer

Edit 5/28/06: Added the schematic to this post since the original site with the directions has disappeared.

My goal here was to convert a standard NES controller to an interface that would work with my PC so when I play my NES Roms I could use the original controller.

I am sure that most of you know what an emulator is however for those of you that do not, I am going to explain it:

What is an emulator:

The Emulator that I am referring to is a program that appeared on the net in 1997 that would allow you to play Nintendo Entertainment System games on your pc, without the original cartridge. A person would download the program and then scour the net for files know simply as ?ROMS?. A ?Rom? was an copy of the video game for the NES, for instance if you wanted to play Super Mario Brothers you would download the emulator and then do a quick search for ?Super Mario Brothers NES rom? in your favorite search engine which would usually produce quite a few hits. After the rom file is downloaded you open it with the emulator, which would allow the game to be played. The first emulators were very rough and would only let you play the games with the keyboard, which of course was quite a hassle. Like most things, the emulators got better over time and started to support a variety of controllers, this is where my mod comes in!

I got tired of playing the Roms with a PC controller and wanted to use the real deal old school NES controller, the only problem was that the controller was just that, an NES controller. Well I set out to fix that:

I had attempted this mod in the past with only marginal success, the controller worked on one of my PC?s and not on the others. This time is came out flawless, and I am very happy with the results!

The project is actually quite simple, below is a list of the components that are needed:

Old NES controller
Diodes (3 X 1N914)
Parallel computer cable
Electrical tape
2 AA batteries
Battery Holder

That of course is a bare minimum list, if you want the finished product to LOOK good too you will want to pick up a hood to house all of the wires in, and in place of the parallel cable you may just want to use a 25 pin connector that is available at your local computer store (Altex is where I got mine).

The only port that met the specifications for the controller to work without having to put A LOT of work into the project was the parallel port. The only downside to the parallel port is power, it simply does not have enough to push the controller which requires +5v DC. This is why you see the battery pack attached to the controller, there are 2 AA batteries in the pack which is 3v and I ran a few leads off the parallel port to make up for the missing 2v (You can also draw power from the PC?s power supply if you like).

I used a software program named PPortJoy to drive the controller, the program will let you interface any parallel joystick with the computer.

If you would like to make your own PC NES controller use the following schematic:

Feel free to e-mail me as well if you need any help!

View the pictures of this project in the gallery

A buddy and I have a morning routine of going to get coffee at a local café called Sip, the coffee and atmosphere are great it makes for a really nice way to start the day. On Fridays I fly solo to get the coffee because my friend is on a Sun – Thurs schedule, so I go this morning to get my fix and just after I finish adding the half & half to my coffee it happens….

I turn and hit the cup with the back of my hand, spilling a large cup of coffee EVERYWHERE.. The lady that gets my coffee every morning is very nice throughout the whole situation and even gives me another cup for free but we all know what she was thinking “What an Ass!!”.

Guess I am going to have to up the tip amount..

I am officially starting the hunt for a new 1985 – 1993 S-10 Blazer 4X4 today. My first vehicle was a Blazer (1986 S-10 4X4) and while it WAS the largest hunk of crap that I have ever driven, I really do like the body of those older trucks. I have found myself in need of a truck more and more over the last few months to handle tasks that my Galant just cant muster.

At first I was going to fix up my old Blazer that has been sitting at my parents place since I quit driving it about 3 years ago, however after looking at it I think I am better of just getting one that is in better shape and parting the old one out to fix it. My goal here is to piece together a four wheel drive truck that will perform when needed and also look good, I have always taken an interest in 4X4’s. I am by no means a hick, so the truck wont have some massive 20’ lift, but I do plan to make it a head turner. Take a look at the pick below, clicking on the one of my truck will take you to the gallery.

My Old Truck:

It’s demise was the rear differential going out while I was driving down interstate 35 (Scary).

What the “new” truck will look like when complete:

Probably not exactly but pretty damn close.

Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced that it has successfully developed a lighter and more advanced successor to the FR, the world’s smallest and lightest micro-flying robot.

Visit the site

WHAT a fiasco!

I can say without a doubt that I will NEVER use the Best Buy delivery again..

The Purchase: Washer & Dryer set

Price: $790.00 with free delivery

Delivery Date: 08/05/2004 between 1pm and 3pm

What happened: 3:30 rolls around and I call Best Buy to make sure that my order is still on it’s way, they assure me that it will be here at 4pm. 4 rolls around and they have yet to show, again a phone call to the delivery center leads me to believe they will be there in about 30 minuets.It’s now 5:30 (I could have gone to work this morning and been home by now) and they have yet to show. I call the delivery center again and ask what the hell is going on, I am told that the truck is at the stop behind mine and they should be at my apartment in about 30 min. At 6:30 a delivery truck pulls up with my items.

The driver apologizes for his tardiness and gets to work putting my washer hoses and dryer plug into their appropriate spots. While he is putting the hoses and stuff on the other delivery person asks to use my bathroom, I of course oblige. This was a mistake.
I am lucky that I have two bathrooms, after he was done using (and abusing) my guest bathroom I had to fight the smell of 10,000 dead corpses to go spray what seemed to be a full canister of air freshener. This was not the BEST part, when he washed his hands he left a total mess all over my countertop and sink, some sort or grease that must have been on the items he was delivering. After all of this the guy that was assembling my washer and dryer says “Sir can I see you outside?” my immediate thought is “Oh shit what did you do”.

He shows me that the front of the washer is loose and that the Best Buy service team will need to make a house call to fix it, and I of course would need to setup all of this. By this time I am totally pissed, I tell the two nitwits to please just take the washer and dryer in the house and hook it up. They setup and test the dryer and it works fine, however they say that the apartments drain slot is too small for the washer to hookup to and I would need to have maintenance drill it out more for it to fit. After this they leave and I hook up the washer (the drain hose fits fine they were just lazy) and wash my first load of clothes.. The time is 7pm. I just wasted a whole day of time off waiting on two of the largest tools I have ever had the displeasure of working with. Next time I get something from Best Buy that does not fit in my car I will RENT a truck.

Comments are fixed and I have migrated the site back to Wordpress (I was using Moveable Type). Overall I think that Moveable Type has a very clean interface, but Wordpress gets the job done just as fast and I don’t have to deal with Perl!

My Comments are acting very strange, when you post one you will get an error saying:
“An error occurred: fork() is not implemented in PerlIS”

I am working on this and will have it fixed soon, you can still post comments, but you will get that error and they wont be visible until after I publish a new entry.

I assumed that just about everyone had seen this, I found out last night at a friends house that I was wrong! Please note that I did not make this, the authors deserve every bit of the credit for the movie, I am just hosting a local copy here because their site is always very active and at times is very slow.

Watch the Movie (You will need Flash)

Visit the Site

Download Flash Player

I can’t believe that California is wasting time and money on these litigations, if PEOPLE want to get married then just let them! Is it really worth all of the time and capital that it is going to take to attempt and bring this matter to a rest? We all know whats next too: An appeal to this decision (with just cause in my eyes).

Full Story

(Thanks Elaine)

People from New York and Ohio come to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub
for a pretty big hamburger: 6 pounds of beef, one large onion, two
whole tomatoes, a half a head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese,
top and bottom buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup,
mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles.

Those who try to tame the 6-pound hamburger have a time limit:
They must do it in three hours or less.

I have to admit that I was not going to rush out and see this movie, however after watching it I know the DVD will end up in my collection once it’s out (And probably before it’s out ). Tom Cruise gets back to an ass kicking role, while Jamie Foxx lightens up the film with clever jokes and his all around funny style. The story takes place on the streets of LA and basically follows Tom Cruise (Vincent) around as he attempts to kill five people in one night, Jamie Foxx (Max) is his driver / hostage. If you would like a full description of the movie, visit the official website at the link below.

Over all I would give Collateral an 8.5 out of 10, this is a good movie with a good soundtrack that is definitely worth going to see.

Collateral Website

When I moved into my new apartment I decided to go with local phone service to cut back on my cell phone minutes, at $17.29 a month I thought the service was a good deal, I don’t need long distance so Vonage was not appealing to me. So I schedule the install online from SBC’s website and get the install date set for August 5th (today), it all works out great because that is also the date that my washer and dryer are being delivered. When I got up today I noticed that there was no install time on the form SBC e-mailed) me (I thought it was an AM install time so I got up early) so I gave them a call from my cell phone, after a barrage of automated offers and recordings I get a real person on the line. I ask the lady what time will the installer be here at she lets me know that he will not need to come inside so there is really no scheduled time, I tell her thank you and TRY to hand up the phone (3 minutes into the call NOT bad!). This is where things got bad. I had an idea the following might happen when the lady answered the phone “Hello this is Linda how may I make you a happy customer today?�:

First she offers me SBC DSL

I tell her that I have Time Warner and it’s free (trying to end this before it starts) and she tells me that for only $30.00 a month I can get SBC, once again I reintegrate that my service is FREE.

Now she goes for long distance

I let her know my long distance is free on my phone and that I do not need t for my home service, she try’s about 3 more times before I flat out say “NO�

Next on the list is cell phone service from Cingular:

I tell her that I am in contract with Sprint and she still keeps beating a dead horse by saying “Well I am going to get you pre-approved and we will send you a phone in the mail, do I have your permission for this?�.

I finally told her that no additional services SBC offers interest me and I really need to go, she finally gets the point and hands up the phone.

The call time on my cell phone now reads 7:49, great 5 minutes of my phone time wasted because I need to verify an install time..

Sorry for the run-on sentences! I wrote this REALLY fast (Just wanted to get the point across)

I went out this weekend and ended up losing my Sprint Phone, while this was an annoyance to me I really did not put too much thought into it as I was thinking of getting a new phone and upgrading my plan anyway.
So on Sunday I get up and go to the Sprint store at the Quarry Market here in San Antonio to look for phones, upon entering the store I find that it is riddled with kids ranging from 6 to probably 13 years old and they are ALL fondling the phones preventing me and other customers from being able to look at the different models, all of this while the parents are talking to the Sprint sales person who is obviously too worried about losing the sale to let the parents know that the kids need to behave and let real shoppers look at the phones. I managed to ask the sales person at the door what the cheapest replacement phone will be (I don’t need a camera on my phone, or any of the other fancy crap they ALL come with now) and low and behold the price is about $150.00!!! The price and atmosphere of the store are enough to make me drive to one of the other store locations at the Forum shopping center, I know the phones would be the same but I figured the chance of so many kids being at that location was lower.
I get the store and am pleased to see that the location is full of only adults, and they also have some really nice phones. I find a phone that I like and ask to speak to a sales associate only to find out that upon entering the store I was suppose to give the lady just standing by the door my name to get on a list of people waiting to talk to sales people, the list has an estimated wait time of 10 minuets (I have been in the store for about 20 now). 15 minuets later I hear my name called by one of the associates and when I approach the sales desk the lady that called my name asked me something along the lines of “What do you want� (very rude) I let her know that I lost my phone and would like to replace it with the one they have on display, she then says “What phone do you want sir?� (rude voice AGAIN).
I told her I know what phone I want and have some questions about the plans before we get to the phone, I told her my situation (I was not in contract thank god) and she tells me that the phone will cost me the sticker price ($200.00) if I want to get it, I let her know that I would be willing to sign a 2 year contract if the cost could be reduced to the promotional cost ($49.00) and that I would like to keep the old number. She told me that there is no way I can keep the old number and tried to talk me into some $50.00 monthly plan that was clearly not what I needed, I let her know what plan I would be going with and finally got the phone – with a new number.
I knew that spending any more time with this sales person was a complete waste and that I could probably have the people on the 888 number for sprint change this later so I left the store with the new phone and number (I did let her know that I could go to AT&T and keep the old number for less than I was paying them and she did not seem to care at all).

After leaving the store I called Sprint customer service and let them know what I would like to do, this time the lady on the phone was VERY helpful and did exactly what I asked – she switched the phone to work with my old number and told me it would be activated in 12 hours or less!
Well I woke up today to find the phone still had no service – I immediately called customer service and was told “There was a problem with our provisioning system and we will need to re-program your phone� so I call back from a land line phone (you can’t re-program the phone if you are on it) and am told that the reason that I can’t use my new phone is because the old one is still on!!! So if you have a phone stolen or lose it YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE NUMBER!!! That is totally 100% worthless.
Luckily a lady found my old phone and I will be able to go get it tonight and then activate the new one with the old number – that’s if Sprint is still open when I get the phone, they close at 9pm now….

All in all here is what I learned:
Sprint’s phones are WAY overpriced
The customer service at Sprint (and the Sprint store) is sub par
If you have an old phone and know how to re-program it you can spoof someone’s phone number and kick them offline
Sprint will lie to you to get you off the phone