MikeSpike.org

Happy 35th Birthday Apple

April 1st, 2011 by Michael in Elon University Elon, NC

I almost forgot another significance to April Fools’ Day, today is Apple’s 35th birthday. I can’t say that I remember them from day one since I wasn’t even born but I can remember the first computer I laid my hands on. This was a Franklin ACE 1200, with a $2,200 price tag, dual 5.25″ drives and 48k of RAM. WOW that was a machine!! I can’t even recall how to work the machine but I do remember my dad teaching me the basic syntax to make games execute. That was enough to ignite my interest in computers for years to come. The rest is history… To many more years of Apple innovation, just be careful not to become “the man.” Thanks dad for making me a tech addict and Happy birthday Apple.

Posted in Technology | 2 Comments »

Tags: Apple, Birthday, family, technology

How to reset the WebGUI password for a Highpoint RocketRAID 3522 Card

March 22nd, 2011 by Michael in Elon University Elon, NC

Here’s a recipe to reset the IOPController password to access the WebGUI of a Highpoint RocketRAID 3522 Card running on OSX. 1. Go to the Mac driver/firmware download page for High Point Raid cards. You will need to get the flash utility that is contained in the EFI Firmware update download. Within the dmg look for a file called ‘flashelf_mac’, this will allow you to flash the bios using OSX. Driver/firmware Download Page: http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=43&viewtype=download 2. Next, go to the main Highpoint Global website and download the Firmware/BIOS driver for the RocketRaid 3522 card (see link below). This download will have the flash utility for the PC but it also contains flash files which can be used in conjunction with the mac flash utility. The file that we’re looking for is called ’3522fs.blf’. Using this file with the mac flash utility will set the firmware back to its default settings. Firmware/BIOS read more…

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »

Tags: Apple, command line, OSX, RAID

Alvin!!!!!!!!!! in Yellowstone.

September 19th, 2010 by Michael in Grant Lodge Yellowstone National Park, WY

It’s halfway into the trip and we’ve already had to ration the Oreo cookies. Ahhhhhh….. The first night of camping I thought there was a moth caught between the tent and the fly cover, but it ended up being a small chipmunk. Our small friend, Alvin, seemed to do all of his business errands during the night time right outside of our tent. The very next day Jen witnessed a small mouse land on our tent from tree limbs above then quickly scour off to one side. Bison have been abundant, so much so that it gets pretty ridiculous when you see traffic stopped just because of one when you eventually see them all over the place. Tonight’s animal excitement, as I’m typing this, is listening to the Elk bugle, or as the campsite hostess said, “trying to get a girlfriend.” As we end our last night in Yellowstone Park read more…

Posted in Travel | No Comments »

Tags: camping, traveling, Yellowstone

“I would like to have seen Montana…..”

September 16th, 2010 by Michael in Tower Fall Campground Yellowstone National Park, WY

This was day one of our long awaited vacation. Yesterday was mostly spent flying into Jackson Hole, then hitting numerous stores in the town of Jackson trying to get supplies for our trip. On my third attempt to find this rare cooking propane tank that comes in blue, I was greeted at the register by a Dale Gribble. This guy gave Jen and I a 30 minute schpeel on bears, bear safety, and what to do in 10 different situations with a bear. Really?!? With us finally escaping, we headed straight north to Montana to a small town just over the border called Gardiner. We found a local pizza joint for dinner called K-bar which served amazing pizza and beer, Kettle House Cold Smoke to be exact. The next morning we had breakfast with 2 other couples and heard all kinds of stories. From blizzards that shutdown Yellowstone to bear read more…

Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

Tags: camping, traveling, Yellow Stone

Fun Friday

May 1st, 2010 by Michael in Greensboro, NC

So what better to do in this eco-lifestyle than to have a Friday night plant project. Last week I had purchased 3 tomato plants from the Duke Gardens Bi-annual plant sale in hopes to have luck at actually growing something with the least dent in my wallet. Anything you start always has upstart costs but reaps the benefit of reusing items in the future. My first thought going into this was to get the hardware needed from a pre-used source but I actually got these items pretty cheap. During the hardware scavenger hunt we where looking for some cheap plastic pots, I ended up getting 5 gallon paint buckets from Home Depot for $2.30 a pop, half as much as the cheapest plastic pot. GO JEN!! The whole project minus the purchase of the plants was slightly less then $30 which I thought was great. Now with my new responsibility read more…

Posted in Hobbies | 3 Comments »

Tags: gardening

Back in the land of rules.

October 27th, 2009 by Michael in Raleigh, NC

This has probably been the craziest two trips of my life over the past two weeks. I was first on the west coast attending a wedding for my Cali cousin Michelle at this amazing place in Healdsburg, California. We met with friends and family over this extended weekend and saw much of the Sonoma Country Wineries. It was great to attend such a great event with such good company even though the room Will and I shared had scary porcelain cats that where placed by the fireplace to glare at you. Getting back to the San Fran airport was even pretty cool since we took the Oakland bridge which gave a totally different prospective coming into the city rather than taking big red across the bay. As for my family getting back to North Carolina, it was pretty easy but as for me and Jen it would be a total read more…

Posted in Travel | No Comments »

Tags: Europe, San Francisco, Switzerland, traveling

My car is officially bobo’d

May 18th, 2009 by Michael in Greensboro, NC

My car as of last week is officially bobo’d (aka tainted). With the car just turning 4 years of ownership and less than 6 months to pay off I get my first hit. While venturing off with Jen to feed our appetites at the local Ganache bakery, we barely made it in time to get a piece of my favorite black cow cake. Upon leaving the store I noticed Jen stalled from getting into the car. I hear a , “ummmm…. Michael, (you can tell it wasn’t good by the tone of her voice….) did someone hit your car???” I think at that time all this blood rushed to my head and a vein popped out. I said.. ” Doo wha(in so many words give or take)???” Yes, lo and behold someone hit my car and left no note. The best I can think of was it either happend the read more…

Posted in Life | 3 Comments »

Tags: auto

« Previous Entries