Sunday, February 27, 2005

I spent some time doing behind the scene's work on the home network. I routed a lot more RG6 and CAT5, and formated many hard drives. When it's all said and done, all the hardware will be in the server closet (as opposed to in various rooms) and the house will look like a hammock with the web of wires. All this and I only have a few walls to patch.

Saturday, February 26, 2005

I had to call the Microsoft Windows activation number today because I (legitimately) reinstalled Windows on a new hard drive. Now, I'm all for making money and I doubt I'm racist, but the off-shore customer service phase will hopefully end soon. I got the "Please restate your problem" line too many times.

Friday, February 25, 2005

It's sure fun to be able to take a half day on a whim. I got the hardest part of wiring the new runs of coax: getting the four feeds from the roof to the server closet. Jose, the DirecTV install guy, had it running all around the outside of the house. I went into the attic through a vent and dropped it straight down with the plumbing.

After a successful day, I went over to Karl's to help him out with his new Xbox. When we both get ours running flawlessly ... I can't even describe it with words.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Unfortunately for the two readers out there, it is study time again. Most of my time will now be taken up memorizing articles. I guess this just means my study breaks will have to be all the more interesting.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

I've always thought about getting into sports, mainly because I have a few friends really into them. But then I remember there's computers and movies.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

I've been running pretty old versions of various utilities on my Xbox, so I spent a good portion of the night upating to the latest releases. I'm currently testing and things are going good. I'll soon be playing Halo 2 from the HD. Next, I need to test ripping a movie to the Xbox.

Speaking of movies, last weekend I watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. It's not that good of a movie, but there is something about it. I did like the effect they were going after with the camera and the old school comic book feel.

Monday, February 21, 2005

I ended up going back to the site for some more hardware troubleshooting. I had to install a new printer because the "all-in-ones" are not usually network compatible. Hours led into hours and I still couldn't install the new printer to the new Dell laptop running XP Pro, although I could very easily on the Windows ME machine.

On an unrelated note, Hunter S. Thompson passed away today. I've dabbled in reading his books and find them quite interesting. I realize that movies are generally nothing like their book couterparts, but Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of the greatest movies made.

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Well, the people didn't call me today about anything not working from the job I did yesterday. That is a good sign. I guess it will really mean something if they don't call tomorrow, when they actually use their computers for work.

Saturday, February 19, 2005

I set up a small office network today. I figured it would take 6 hours to do everything I needed to. I started at 9:00 am and left there at 10:30 pm. It seems I would get everything working right and as I walked out the door, something would break. Their previous computers were running Windows ME and had many screens of adware. And I'll leave it to the reader to picture the size of the dust bunnies behind the desk.

Friday, February 18, 2005

I've been complaining a lot about having too much to do, but then goof off instead. I took the day off today to get as many projects done. I spent about 8 hours wiring the house for the new DirecTiVo boxes, and didn't finish. Once dinner rolled around and a movie started, I was spent.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

After about 4 coasters, I finally got a burned Mandrake distro that worked. A little word of advice: spend the extra $25 and don't get the cheapest CD burner there is. I don't know if that holds for DVD burners, but why risk it, especially when DVD-R's are more expensive.

Tip of the day: When running EvoX, hold Left Trigger, Right Trigger, Back Button. It'll be your favorite combination, even more than Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

I finally had the time to dig into my moded Xbox. It's quite the amazing piece of work. I installed a few utilities to make it even better. Now I can copy games and movies directly to the hard drive, then back them up onto my PC or burn them to disc. Unfortunately I couldn't test any of it since the 250 GB hard drive is already full of games. And FTP'ing from Xbox to PC takes a bit of time, especially over the wireless network.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

I had good intentions of going to karate and getting some work done around the house. I need to do some wiring for the new DirecTiVo boxes, get the UFO antenna tuned to get HD locals, and activate the last box. On top of that, I want to rig up a laptop to the new TV upstairs to display pictures and the internet, and somehow get XLive Kai working.

But instead, I blew it all off and hung out at a bar with a friend. There's always tomorrow.

Monday, February 14, 2005

I found two alternatives to Xbox Live: XBConnect and XLive Kai. I spent several hours trying to get XLive Kai running. After many PM's and phone calls to random people, I still couldn't get it working. After doing a little more digging I find out that the wireless adapter I'm using (DWL-520+) is one of very few incompatible cards with XLive Kai. I guess I'll look into XBConnect and any incompatibilities. Otherwise, I will have to 1) hardwire the computer to the router, 2) purchase a compatible wireless card, or 3) set up an old computer in the server closet that will be hardwired and running XLive Kai.

Why can't things just work.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Let's see ... I stepped on a rusty nail today. Luckily I go to the emergency room often enough to have an updated tetinus shot. I do have to admit that the frequency of visits is getting less.

I'll have to work on that ...

Saturday, February 12, 2005

I didn't get much accomplished today. In fact, nothing on my list got crossed off. I did watch Catwoman, which, other than a few cool fighting scenes, was pretty bad. I then stayed up until almost 1 am playing the Catwoman video game, which, other than a few cool moves, was pretty bad.

Friday, February 11, 2005

I realize this is old news, but I just learned about it. This guy named Andrew Fischer sold advertising space on his forehead using eBay. And he got $37,000! I wonder if work would allow me to sharpie words on my face?

In other news, a cool program I played with this fine Friday during work was NameVoyager. According to her blog, you can really see how history affects names, like German names during the 1940's.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

I found out today that all the features that the stand-alone Tivo's have, specifically Multi-Room Viewing and Picture Viewer, are not available to the DirecTV/Tivo combo boxes. So the two units I bought last weekend just got a lot crappier. I guess I should have done more research before spending all that money. Hopefully DirecTV realizes how many people want these features and will flip the switch.

I guess that's just one more project on my list ... be the first to hack .tivo files.

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

I went to go rent Halo 2 ... again ... and Blockbuster said I had a late fee. Now I'm not from around here, but doesn't the slogan "End of Late Fees" mean anything anymore? Apparently, if you don't return the movie before the "second" due date, there are "restocking fees". So, they got me on a technicality and renamed the fees. Chalk one up for the machines.

Tuesday, February 8, 2005

We had a meeting with the chief actuary for my area. It was good to hear that we all still have jobs and that we should in the future. I officially have a boss now; at least it says so on the org chart. We'll see how it works out.

Monday, February 7, 2005

I ooh'd and ahh'd over all the new equipment I bought over the weekend. I also read up on all the new features we'll get by upgrading to Series 2 tuners. I'm really excited about TiVoToGo, Photo Viewer, and Multi-Room Viewing.

Sunday, February 6, 2005

I spent quite a few dollars at Circuit City today. I went there for an HR10-250. This is the DirecTV HD DVR. I got it installed right before the Super Bowl began. Now, I'm not a football fan, but watching this game in high definition sure had me tuned in. Actually, anything broadcasted in high definition would get my attention. It sure will be hard to watch standard definition now.

So, like I said, I went there for this box, and came out with a lot more. I also picked up another HD montior for upstairs with matching stand. Figured I should pick another DirecTV box for it. Got the necessary cables, including the HD kit for Xbox. I never knew that retail stores allowed negotiation, but it appeared they were expecting some. The HR10-250 normally costs around $1000, but I suggested $850 and they accepted. (When I got home, I called DirecTV and asked if they could give me a credit for being a loyal customer and upgrading to HD. They gave me another $250 off without a fight.)

I got many new toys to play with now. I am very happy. Did I mention HD is incredible? I know it's just TV, but c'mon.

Saturday, February 5, 2005

It was a record high today, something around 50 degrees. I decided to take the Christmas lights down, which is also a record. I think last year it was around May the lights came down. It's February and I still hate Christmas decorating. I am sure of one thing; if it was just me living here, there would be absolutely no decorations. Hate.

Friday, February 4, 2005

I stumbled across this "too good to be true" hosting company called twelvedollarhosting.com. They offer unlimited bandwidth and unlimited storage. Their site looks legit, but I'll definetly have to do some more research before I sign on.

Speaking of stumbling, it was near impossible getting up this morning after the bash last night. My head stopped pounding at about noon. Good thing lives aren't in my hands during work.

Thursday, February 3, 2005

I had a work function tonight. I really like those, especially if the company pays for the food and drink. I did the expected mingling. But more importantly, I almost broke the record for most drinks during the evening. I vowed then that next event I would become the record holder. Luckily it was the bigwig encouraging me.

Wednesday, February 2, 2005

I got my first official "computer job". By a reference, I was hired to purchase a new laptop, update hardware, and install a wireless network. It's certainly not the most complicated procedure, but one should put in the time. I ordered a loaded Dell Inspiron 8600, which doesn't get here for a week and a half ... just enough time to get my game plan figured out.

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

The St. Paul medallion was found today at about 3:00 PM. The wife and I went and looked for it from about 1:00 to 3:00, with obviously no luck. It would have been cool to be there when it was found (it would have been cooler to find it). I guess there's always next year.

Now where am I going to find $10,000?