Thursday, September 22, 2011

H block 10 Reunion Show - September 24, 2011!

It's been many, many years but the boys from H block 10 are re-uniting for a one-time show! In just a few days (Saturday, September 24, 2011) the original lineup, consisting of Adam Coolong, Justin Sirota, James Kinsey and yours truly (Ben Ducklow) are getting back together for show in honor of our good friend, Jeremy Carlsruds' Day of Birth celebration! We'll be playing at The Buck in located in the quaint, quiet college town of Menomonie, WI.

After a special request from Jer a few months ago, he managed to stir up some interest from me and the guys who once rocked various bars, clubs and cornfields in the greater Twin Cities and western Wisconsin area. We've got Adam who happened to have a few days off from his busy Irish acoustic 2-man band, the Wild Colonial Bhoys, Justin (who was able to fly in from Los Angeles, California) and of course, Jimmy and myself (who have been performing as part of the Two Fisted Leroys over the past few years).

We're 1 out of 3 bands performing that evening and are in the middle slot - we should go on about 10pm-ish. We'll be playing alot of the tracks off our 2001 release titled, "The Struggle" such as Dare I, Mistaken, Come Out You Black and Tans as well as some songs written and performed after that release such as Through A Bombsight and Soccer Mom. BRING YOUR EARPLUGS!

So if your looking for a reason to take a road trip or you're in the area, hit me up so we can meet up!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

A Linksys WPC54Gv2 Hack

Have a Linksys WPC54G version 2 PCMCIA wireless card? You want to connect it to a WPA2 encrypted wireless network? If you were like me (and were using the standard/out-of-the-box Linksys Windows drivers) it will not work.

After scouring the web, I came across a small little site that had a resolution to this issue. The fix was to basically over-ride the standard Windows/Linksys drivers with ones from another make/model. These drivers provide full support the WPA2 wireless security protocol and have been rock solid as far as stability.

I'm not sure why Linksys doesn't supply a driver/firmware update that supports WPA2 on the WPC54G card. Perhaps they think the card is simply too old. Well the heck with them, this card works great!

I'm here to pass on this little technical tidbit in case someone out there runs into the same issue. See the original post from EneergE here: Howto: WPA2 support on pcmcia WPC54G version 2.0 or download the drivers from here as well.

Good luck!

Monday, March 14, 2011

MP3 Scan + Repair

Here's an application for the Mac OS called MP3 Scan + Repair.

This little application is a must have if you download MP3 tracks from the web (outside of the usual sources such as iTunes or Amazon MP3) or are finding that some music files are unplayable on your system. This FREE app basically does what the name of it implies; it scans any MP3 files you drag and drop into the window (or icon) and if desired, you can repair/rebuild the file(s) selected.

What I've found out is sometimes MP3 files get damaged and is no longer recognized as a valid MP3 or sound files. This may have happened during a copy or download. Basically the resource forks (or something) within the file are damaged, thus altering the file in a minor way and making it unrecognizable as a music file.

I use MP3 Scan + Repair on nearly every MP3 file I obtain from an 'outside-the-norm-source' to ensure the files are clean and coded properly. Overall, a very useful tool that I have in my arsenal of Mac file utilities.