Well, I got up this morning and found that my Window$ box had died. The power LED was on, but the rest of the machine was non-responsive. I think that the motherboard fried on the machine, as I’ve swapped out all the other suspect components, and found that they haven’t remedied the the problem (power supply, memory, CPU). So, I checked, and the motherboard (ASUS A7V8X) has a 3 year warranty (with almost a year left). I contacted ASUS tech support, and they said to get the board repaired/replaced, I needed to call the RMA department (different number). However, they are only open weekdays. So, I’ll have to wait and get the ball rolling on Monday. But, that’s alright; I still have three Linux boxes and a Mac to pick up the slack. 
In other news, my site (and BJU Bloggers) will be moving to a new hosting solution in the next few days, but we’re not anticipating much, if any, down time. We’re hoping that move will increase the overall security of the sites that we’re hosting, as recently, we’ve had a few security breaches that have not settled well with us.
On the acacdemic front, I’ve managed (with the help of God) to bring up my grades in most of my classes to an acceptable level, without sacrificing too much of my non-existant social life 
I’m still alive, although my Calculus grade could be classified as being vegitative
I do have a little bit of a quandry though (there’s always at least one hanging around in my head…). I found a nice site to check gas prices. It uses the Google Maps (now part of Google Local) API to map gas stations and their current (well, recent anyway) prices. I think this is one of the most innovative uses of Google Maps so far. But, I digress…I was just moving over the map, looking at the gas prices around my house, when I noticed that my sub-division (previously not seen on Google Maps, as it’s a newer one) was now visible on the Map.
I didn’t really think much about it until yesterday, when I saw an article on digg about how to use a Verizon LG phone to get your current location on the globe (via a hidden GPS menu on the phone). So, I followed the instructions on the site, and found my current latitude and longitude. Then, I just plugged those two numbers into Google Maps, and it plotted my current location. There was one problem though; my sub-division was not on the Google Map like it had been just a day or two earlier. I then remembered that I had seen it on the gas prices site.
If you’ll notice in the pictures below, the map taken from maps.google.com identify the provider of the map data to be “NAVTEQ.” However, on the map taken from MapGasPrices.com, the provider of the map data is identified to be “Tele Atlas.” This brings up my quandry: why would Google use different map provider for the people pulling from the Google Maps API, than Google Maps itself. It seems strange to me…
The Evidence:
OK, so here’s the scheme:
1. You click this link, and sign up.
2. You complete one of the offers that are listed after signing up.
3. You refer 10 friends to do the same.
4. You get a Mac Mini for FREE!
OK, but be kind about where you post links, as many people spam many a blog across the internet with thier own sign-up links, and it really makes people irritated. Anyway, any of you that would like to click my referal link, that’s alright with me.
I, myself, will only be posting this link here, and emailing it to a few select people that I know won’t mind (and most of those few won’t mind NOT clicking the linke ). And, just incase you were wondering, I signed up for the Rhapsody Music service for a month (only $0.99 for the first month), and they give me 5 free downloads. Anway, that looked like the most reasonable choice on the list.
Have fun. 
Well folks, this is it. I’ve given in and started my own blog. Many of you don’t know that I actually had a blog before this, but it was on BlogSpot, and my sole purpose in writing it was simply to get invited to Gmail. Anyway, as soon as I got an invite (not as a result of my blog, mind you), I stopped posting.
Anyway, I hope anyone reading this can cope with the fact that I have no idea what I’ll be using this for yet, but that should be clearer to me as I start posting more. Have fun reading anyway…