Sunday, March 4, 2007
I've come to the conclusion that I lost my PSP. So now I've got to figure out if I buy another, or get a DS to play around with. I normally watch video, possibly listen to music and access the internet, and play a few games, which both can do. I do like the hackability of the PSP. I'll have to see if the price has any sway on the decision.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Ohhh, my back is sore. Karl gave me a snow blower, but it's meant for a few inches, not 20. So, needless to say, my back is sore. I might have to look into getting a used snow blower for next year, but I can't believe how much they are. Instead of paying $500 for a decent used one, I'm considering seeing if the neighbor would take $10 each time I use his.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Wow, the company actually shut down today. Granted, we probably have 16 inches of snow with more coming down. But, c'mon, it's only snow.
Anyway, I took the full day to do some database cleaning on both the server and production PC, and a lot of transfering of files between the two. My movie collection is getting quite big. I like that.
Anyway, I took the full day to do some database cleaning on both the server and production PC, and a lot of transfering of files between the two. My movie collection is getting quite big. I like that.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
It started snowing pretty hard today. The last time my work closed due to weather was back in 1989. At about 11:30, the dude came over the intercom and suggested we go home ... done.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
It started snowing pretty hard today. The last time my work closed due to weather was back in 1989. At about 11:30, the dude came over the intercom and suggested we go home ... done.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
I got the hardware from uControl today. Since I already have an ADT system, this new module is supposed to simply snap into the system board ... and actually, it was quite simple. I was working on it during the evening, so I unplugged the horn (which I forgot to hook back up, now that I think about it). About an hour later, I had a web controlled, fully internet and cell monitored security system. ADT wasn't surprised that I cancelled due to lack of web control. I guess they'll have to learn some new tricks.
Sunday, February 18,2007
I got up this morning at 6, giving me 3.5 hours of sleep, but yet I feel fine. I think I've finally conquered this sleep thing. I think what's more important than the amount of sleep is the schedule of sleep. I go to bed at midnight every night and wake up at 6. This routine is why I haven't crashed yet. Sure my brain isn't repairing and organizing, and they say I'm shaving years off my life, but I'd rather have those years now in the form of no sleep than later in the form of withered old man.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Oh man, what a day. Now that I'm sleeping between 5 and 6 a night, it sure makes the days long. Not in a bad way, it just seems that I'm doing a lot more (which I guess is the point). For example, I got up and did house chores for 4 hours, studied for 6 hours, hung out with family for another 6 hours, and then played Xbox for 2 hours. (A good way to get major progress is to host a coop game and play until somebody finds you. Not only will you get time in yourself, but you'll continue checkpoint saves once somebody joins. Brilliant.)
When will I crash?
When will I crash?
Thursday, February 15, 2007
As I convert movies on my main computer, I FTP them over to the Xbox, then use the Xbox to FTP them over to the server (I'm still trying to figure out why my PC can't see the server). But my router seems to occasionally lockup when moving these 2G files (at a snails pace of 1M/s, which is another story). I've done the usual troubleshooting, but to no avail. I guess it's just a feature of an old crappy D-Link product. It seems there's a fair number of people on the user groups with the same issues.
One problem at a time please ...
One problem at a time please ...
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
I use ADT for the home security monitoring. A while back, I got Vonage and the security worked sometimes and not others. So someone came out and said that ADT rarely works with VOIP, and I should get the "cell backup". I told them to install it and thought I was good. Well, a few weeks ago I noticed the panel was displaying a failure to communicate code. Long story short, the ADT guy came out today and said I didn't have the cell backup installed. He tried using the phone lines and the system sent a signal. I told him it might work now, but probably will go out again. Plus, I think it messes up the VOIP router. Of course he recommended the cell backup (which I thought I already had) and left.
Now, I have to deal with getting credit on my account. I mentioned alarm.com to him and he said the online features sounded like a good idea. I told him that I didn't think my current hardware was compatible with alarm.com's panel, but he said you can always get things to work by going through adaptors. So basically the ADT guy told me to ditch ADT.
I guess I have more research to do ...
Now, I have to deal with getting credit on my account. I mentioned alarm.com to him and he said the online features sounded like a good idea. I told him that I didn't think my current hardware was compatible with alarm.com's panel, but he said you can always get things to work by going through adaptors. So basically the ADT guy told me to ditch ADT.
I guess I have more research to do ...
Monday, February 12, 2007
I officially started the mass conversion of all my DVD's to the server. It takes my machine between 3 and 4 hours to convert one movie, running at 100%. My goal is to get four converted each day. I'm starting with the official DivX Converter, which so far can convert 80% of the movies. I'll either need to find another application to convert the other 20%, or store the set of VOBs for each movie.
Either way, I'm sure I'll need to get a new processor after this project.
Either way, I'm sure I'll need to get a new processor after this project.
Sunday, February 11,2007
Aw man, I stayed up pretty late last night. Karl and I finally got some game time in. Here's a tip for you all: If you're at the very last guy and Karl wants to play coop from the beginning, don't do it. I lost my checkpoint and now have to go through the entire game again. I guess there's worse things.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I'm slowly getting back into a routine. I was able to watch two movies tonight. I probably should be doing house things, but I figure as long as I can maintain warmth in and critters out, I'm doing alright.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
I've been having some problems with Mobil (Xbox) playing movies from zion (server). I recently reconfiged the samba users on zion and thought Mobil just didn't have access anymore. But I still could browse zion. I would queue a movie to play, Mobil would recognize it was a divx file, but then abort procedure. Maybe Mobil had read only permissions. So I change the directory to public executable, still no luck. I did some research and found others had a similar problem when XBMC tried to output a resolution that their display didn't like. My Mitsubishi accepts 480i, 480p, and 1080i. I have XBMC outputting at 1080i, so there shouldn't be an issue. Anyway, I set XBMC to be 480p and now the movies play fine. Currently I don't have any movies higher than that, and I'm too busy playing the 360 to worry about games on Mobil, so this fix is fine. Perhaps I'll look into this some more later ... doubtful.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Knapper's in London and I've been meaning to get him some info on where to find me some absinthe. After a little nagging from him, I figure it would be easiest to post it here. So here you are Knapper. Don't feel obligated to do any of this.
Gerry's Wine & Spirits has a large selection of absinthe. See if they know where to get an absinthe glass. If you have time, could you also get a list, or take a picture, of their selection? When you're at the airport, look for Parisian Le Fee (not Bohemian).
Safe travels.
Gerry's Wine & Spirits has a large selection of absinthe. See if they know where to get an absinthe glass. If you have time, could you also get a list, or take a picture, of their selection? When you're at the airport, look for Parisian Le Fee (not Bohemian).
Safe travels.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Ah yes. I love this house.
I woke up to no running water. Went to the basement and found the main water pipe was frozen. Alright, this sucks. So I get the hair dryer out and start thawing the pipes. I left the laundry tub faucet on and could see water dripping out as the ice melted. At some point I heard the ice clanking around, which I thought was a good thing because that means I'm getting movement. The next thing I knew I was getting sprayed in the face by freezing water. The main pipe burst. Alright, this really sucks. Now, I'm no stranger to water adventures, but there's no way I'm going to be able to fix this. So I get on the internet to find a plumber ... oh wait, no internet. This really sucks and now I'm getting irritated. I somehow found a number and was able to get somebody to come out on an "emergency" call. About an hour later, the plumber shows up, calmly assesses the situation, and starts re-routing the main instead of fixing it. the main was along the foundation wall, inside the finished wall and above the ceiling. The worst possible spot since this area is cold and gets no heat. The plumber said it was a miracle that this hadn't happened before. Apparently they didn't have cold weather back when they built the house. Anyway, a few hours and a couple hundred bucks later, i had running water again. This really sucks and I'm irritated, but it's over. I guess they had around 50 calls relating to pipe bursts. If I learned anything, it's that if you can wait to call a plumber on Monday instead of the weekend, do it. Overtime (weekend) rates are triple that of normal emergency calls.
I woke up to no running water. Went to the basement and found the main water pipe was frozen. Alright, this sucks. So I get the hair dryer out and start thawing the pipes. I left the laundry tub faucet on and could see water dripping out as the ice melted. At some point I heard the ice clanking around, which I thought was a good thing because that means I'm getting movement. The next thing I knew I was getting sprayed in the face by freezing water. The main pipe burst. Alright, this really sucks. Now, I'm no stranger to water adventures, but there's no way I'm going to be able to fix this. So I get on the internet to find a plumber ... oh wait, no internet. This really sucks and now I'm getting irritated. I somehow found a number and was able to get somebody to come out on an "emergency" call. About an hour later, the plumber shows up, calmly assesses the situation, and starts re-routing the main instead of fixing it. the main was along the foundation wall, inside the finished wall and above the ceiling. The worst possible spot since this area is cold and gets no heat. The plumber said it was a miracle that this hadn't happened before. Apparently they didn't have cold weather back when they built the house. Anyway, a few hours and a couple hundred bucks later, i had running water again. This really sucks and I'm irritated, but it's over. I guess they had around 50 calls relating to pipe bursts. If I learned anything, it's that if you can wait to call a plumber on Monday instead of the weekend, do it. Overtime (weekend) rates are triple that of normal emergency calls.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
The network is still down. I called Comcast (again) and they said 20% of customers in my area are experiencing problems. When asked what was causing it, they said because it's been so cold (-15 degrees), lines are snapping and they can't repair them fast enough.
This got me thinking. One argument that Comcast uses to bash DirecTV is the idea you can't watch TV during bad weather. I so wished I recorded that conversation. I think I'll send DirecTV a quick note about this and get on a commercial or something.
This got me thinking. One argument that Comcast uses to bash DirecTV is the idea you can't watch TV during bad weather. I so wished I recorded that conversation. I think I'll send DirecTV a quick note about this and get on a commercial or something.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Saturday nights (late, late nights) have turned into gaming night. Karl and I have set it up to play some Xbox Live. I think it's been four weeks now, and we have yet to play together. The first three weeks, "something else" came up for Karl. Tonight it was me that didn't attend. My network went down, and I ended up spending two hours trying to get it back up. I've been doing a lot of file transfers and thought it might have strained the network. I ended up rebooting every component (cable modem and two routers) a few times. I finally got my end working, only to figure out the problem was on Comcasts end. I hate not gaming.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
I learned something today. Something very useful. Because I work at a large company, we have very strict internet blockers. I can't check web-based email, access web-based storage, nor view photo or video sharing sites. Somebody on digg mentioned that some administrators only block the domain name and not the IP address, either because they're lazy or leave them open for their friends. For example, YouTube is blocked, but 208.65.153.253 is not. Next up, GMail.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
So, I've been following the Mooninites story, as has everybody else, so I won't retell it here. I'm not quite sure where I stand. Is it bad or good? Are they terrorists in that they instilled fear and panic, or was it a brilliantly planned joke that somebody didn't get? If they stuck stickers all over the city, I doubt there would be a story. We know what a sticker can do ... stick. But a device with lights? It could be anything. What if it didn't have lights and was just a cardboard box? Again, I doubt there would be a story. So I guess the fact that it's electronic makes it bad. Regardless of this, I do think Boston over-reacted. I'm hoping there's more to the story than we're getting. Because to shut down a city over this is a bit embarrassing. There were reports of other suspicious packages in DC, suspected terrorists captured in Britain, and even a call about a bomb in somebodies desk down the road (unrelated). I still say Boston's actions were over the top. But back to the prank. I'd like to say that it was good (probably because it sounds like something I would do). But we would definitely be having different headlines if nobody did anything about them and they were bombs, and people were blowing up laughing at a cartoon character.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
I officially started studying this week. The exam is at the end of April, so this gives me about 3 months. The good news is that, including this one, I only have two more. There is hope ...
I've also been decreasing the amount of sleep I get to see where a good balance of sleep deprivation and daytime alertness. Right now I'm at 6 hours. I'll probably remain here for a few weeks to see how it pans out. I remember reading an article about "Little House on the Prairie" times where the average number of hours was 9. I think this was because they didn't have light except for candles, and there's not much you can do in blackness other than sleep.
I've also been decreasing the amount of sleep I get to see where a good balance of sleep deprivation and daytime alertness. Right now I'm at 6 hours. I'll probably remain here for a few weeks to see how it pans out. I remember reading an article about "Little House on the Prairie" times where the average number of hours was 9. I think this was because they didn't have light except for candles, and there's not much you can do in blackness other than sleep.
Monday, January 29, 2007
I found my flash drive today. It was missing for at least two months. This gives me hope that my PSP is hiding in the house somewhere.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday's have kind of evolved into cleaning day, which is the worst possible use of time. I mean, can you imagine Martin Luther King vacuuming? Or Morpheus washing his whitie-tighties?
By the way, Weather Man is not worth watching.
By the way, Weather Man is not worth watching.
Friday, January 26, 2007
I met some friends at Ichiban, a Japanese steakhouse; expensive as hell, but fun and tasty. We then went over to an English-style pub. Since I'm such a world traveler, I can say their attempt at getting the atmosphere right was valiant attempt, but you could tell it wasn't old and lived-in.
Which reminds me ... Knapper is on London right now, and I'm suppose to send him some details on my next shipment of absinthe.
Which reminds me ... Knapper is on London right now, and I'm suppose to send him some details on my next shipment of absinthe.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
So, as I was surfing the internet last night, I came across secretwalltattoos. Like many good sites, I came across this a few years ago, but forgot about it. So I was inspired and did my own. I of course didn't have my camera and had to rely on the cell phone (possibly the only time that a phone camera would have a good application, knapper). And naturally, I don't have the tools at the moment to post the pictures. Needless to say, stay in room 310. Hotels sure have gotten smart about their "art" security. It took me almost 20 minutes just to get the mirror off the wall.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
I brought my GPS device down with hopes I'd be able to find a cache. No such luck. After the all day meetings and eating dinner with everybody, it's about 9:00. And last time I tried to find caches during nightfall, I came dangerously close to getting eaten by an alligator. Well, a night surfing the internet isn't a bad second place.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
I'm in Phoenix and it's pretty nice, with temperatures in the 60's. I didn't find my PSP, so I was reduced to listening to music on the iRiver. Our meeting was at one of the infinite country club's in Arizona. It's actually pretty cool with massive stonework, leather libraries, stocked bar, billiards room ... I think I'd join if it weren't for the 80 year old pricks.
Monday, January 22, 2007
I'm leaving for Phoenix tomorrow and was going to convert some diggnation to watch on the plane using my PSP. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it. It seems as of late, I'm misplacing things more frequently. I'm pretty sure I'll find it sooner than later, but there's a part of me that thinks I left it on the plane during my last trip. That would really suck, not only because of the replacement cost (and it was a gift), but it shows I can't keep track of my stuff. I hate disorder in my personal life ... but I'm a fan of anarchy.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
I finally got around to bottling another batch of brew. An alarming find was that the final specific gravity of the beer was around 1.01, which according to the alcohol by volume formula, only produced 1.6% alcohol. Not that I'm brewing to get drunk, but it'd be a nice side effect of tasty homemade brew.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
I still can't get the Windows machine (where I do all my movie converting) to see the Linux server (where I want to host the converted movies), nor the other way around. Right now I'm using the Xbox to transfer the movies, since it's the only thing that can see all machines on the network. So I've queued up the latest 6 movies to transfer and I'll see if it's done in the morning. Remember, for some reason I'm only getting 1M/s.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Ever since the new benefits at Blockbuster, I've been converting movies like a fiend to fill the server. Since I'm on the 3 out plan, I can return these to the store to exchange for 3 more, giving me 6 for the week. Plus, with the two free coupons a month, I figure I'll be accumulating 26 movies per month, almost one a day. All for $20 a month. I know I could download them all for free, but this way I can control the quality. Besides ... this isn't illegal, is it?
Hey, if you think it's legal, it's legal.
Hey, if you think it's legal, it's legal.
Monday, January 15, 2007
I went over to Knappers house to fix his computer. He was installing a Kodak photo program and got the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on every reboot. After booting from the Windows XP install disk, we copied the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM files from c:\windows\repair to c:\windows\system32\config. The repair directory contains these 5 files from the time Windows was installed (i.e., unmodified versions). We were then able to boot normally into Windows without getting the BSOD. From here, we chose a Restore Point found at c:\System Volume Information\_restore{*}\RP%\snapshot (* is some large hex string and % is the latest restore that Windows is known to have booted fine) and copied the _REGISTRY_MACHINE_ files and _REGESTRY_USER_.DEFAULT file to c:\windows\system32\config (renaming them appropriatly to DEFAULT, SAM, etc.
BAM, rebooted perfectly.
BAM, rebooted perfectly.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
So as I was finally relaxing at home, I thought of another project I'd like to do. I have several very old laptops laying idle. My idea is to mount one of them onto the wall in the kitchen. I'd use this mainly to display Google calendar and other things, like grocery lists and recipes. I just have to find the easiest applications to use and integrate. I'll probably install a fairly small linux distro. All I really need is a browser. I suppose I could build my own application to access the server, but we all know how that'll go.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
I stayed up pretty late tonight (it's actually well into Sunday) , and passed Gears of War on the 360. By pass I mean finished the story on Casual, the easiest level. To fully "pass" the game, you need to complete all "achievements", which include finding secret objects and playing a lot of people online. All in all, an excellent game.
I'd also like to point out that I surpassed Karl in yet another game. It's not like he has babies screaming at his house.
I'd also like to point out that I surpassed Karl in yet another game. It's not like he has babies screaming at his house.
Friday, January 12, 2007
I checked on my recent batch of brew and things don't look good. I originally set the primary fermenter on the concrete basement floor, which brought the temperature to 55 degrees, too cold for an ale. I have since moved it to a different room onto carpet and now its up to 65 degrees, perfect for an ale. But I haven't seen any fermenting activity. So either the fermenting happened quick and I missed it, or I killed all the yeast with the cold temperature. I could pitch more yeast and see what happens, but I'll probably end up moving it to the secondary fermenter, and then bottle it after a few days. Worst case is that it'll be very weak, but hopefully still taste good.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
A pretty historic day in the family. Karl('s wife) had a baby girl today ... Marek Athena. Exciting times.
On a tech note, the hospital had free wifi (but you still can't use cell phones). This is good because there's a lot of down time when staying several days in the hospital room. I guess he's been listening to Pandora. I've given this site a third try, and it's a neat idea. I'm not sure it deserves all the buzz it's getting, but I've set up a few channels and will be experimenting over the next few weeks.
On a tech note, the hospital had free wifi (but you still can't use cell phones). This is good because there's a lot of down time when staying several days in the hospital room. I guess he's been listening to Pandora. I've given this site a third try, and it's a neat idea. I'm not sure it deserves all the buzz it's getting, but I've set up a few channels and will be experimenting over the next few weeks.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I've been waiting until TiVo shares got to $5.00 and I was going to buy a few hundred. It was creeping down everyday, getting very close (lowest was $5.05) and then they officially announced that they were going to be putting their interface on Comcast's DVR's. It shot up close to $6.00. In my opinion that's still undervalued. One of these days I'm going to pull the trigger, buy the shares, and pray to Allah that Google buys them out.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
It's good when work goes by quick. I'm back doing a little coding and the day flew by. Because I'm not busy enough as it is, I started looking at learning Python. (I'd put a link in to show those not familiar that Python is a programming language, but I'm using the Konqueror browser which Google (Blogger) doesn't support.) The main reason for wanting to learn Python is that XBMC supports it. There are a few scripts out there that can do some cool things, but probably 90% of them either don't work or are just lame.
Monday, January 8, 2007
I was able to play a little Xbox Live tonight. And as expected, it was quite fun. I still find it amazing that you can online with up to 8 people from anywhere in the world, and game play is as seamless as playing offline. Rarely any lag, glitches, hangs, or disconnections. I'm sure a lot of work went towards building that network, so why is mine taking so long?
Sunday, January 7, 2007
I was able to get to the homebrewing store yesterday to get some supplies. I made a batch of Aussie Light Ale. I want to set up a section on this site to track my batches. I guess yet another reason to switch from Blogger and host it myself. Until I do, here's the ingredients.
Malt Extract: 3.3 lbs Gold LME, 1 lb DME
Specialty Grains: 8 oz Carapils Malt, 8 oz crystal 10L Malt
Hops: 1.5 oz Tettnang pellet hops
Yeast: Dry yeast
I steeped the grain in 1.75 gallons of water for 30 minutes at 155 degrees, then turned off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Then I stirred in the malt extract and brought to a boil. I then added .75 oz of the hops and boiled for 60 minutes. During the last two minutes I added the remaining hops. My new wort chiller wouldn't fit in the pot I was using, so I transfered the wort to the fermenter, got the wort to around 80 degrees, then added ice cold water to fill the fermenter to 5 gallons. While doing this, I re-hydrated the yeast for about 15 minutes in warm water and added this to the fermenter before I sealed it up.
Now I need to find a bigger pot, hopefully at least a 4 gallon. The starting gravity was supposed to be in the range of 1.035 - 1.039, but mine was 1.022. Either I'm not using my hydrometer correctly or this is going to be very weak beer.
Malt Extract: 3.3 lbs Gold LME, 1 lb DME
Specialty Grains: 8 oz Carapils Malt, 8 oz crystal 10L Malt
Hops: 1.5 oz Tettnang pellet hops
Yeast: Dry yeast
I steeped the grain in 1.75 gallons of water for 30 minutes at 155 degrees, then turned off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes. Then I stirred in the malt extract and brought to a boil. I then added .75 oz of the hops and boiled for 60 minutes. During the last two minutes I added the remaining hops. My new wort chiller wouldn't fit in the pot I was using, so I transfered the wort to the fermenter, got the wort to around 80 degrees, then added ice cold water to fill the fermenter to 5 gallons. While doing this, I re-hydrated the yeast for about 15 minutes in warm water and added this to the fermenter before I sealed it up.
Now I need to find a bigger pot, hopefully at least a 4 gallon. The starting gravity was supposed to be in the range of 1.035 - 1.039, but mine was 1.022. Either I'm not using my hydrometer correctly or this is going to be very weak beer.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Karl got an Xbox 360 for Christmas and has been raving about Xbox Live. I have been purposely not getting one, for the same reasons I didn't get the original Xbox for a while. Mainly because with my exams, I don't need any temptation to not study, but also just the whole time factor. Gaming can be quite expensive in terms of evenings. I have probably over 80 games for the Xbox, and I've really only played maybe 20. Plus, there are rumers that version 2 of the 360's are coming at some point, most likely summer. All good reasons to wait. But the only way to shut Karl up is to get my own, which is what I did today.
I signed up for Live, which is what Microsoft is claiming to be the main feature. Apparently echomoche is not a valid Gamertag, even though I also have it for a hotmail address. So for now, I chose echo3oche, which hopefully I can figure out how to activate echomoche. You can see my card in the sidebar. Hopefully my rankings will improve quickly, because as another study season approaches, little progress on the 360 will be made.
I signed up for Live, which is what Microsoft is claiming to be the main feature. Apparently echomoche is not a valid Gamertag, even though I also have it for a hotmail address. So for now, I chose echo3oche, which hopefully I can figure out how to activate echomoche. You can see my card in the sidebar. Hopefully my rankings will improve quickly, because as another study season approaches, little progress on the 360 will be made.
Friday, January 5, 2007
I received a reminder of Blockbusters new feature. Currently I get three movies shipped using their online service, and get 2 free in-store rentals a month. Their new promotion involves returning the movies to a store, they mail them for you, and you get 1 free in-store rental per mailer. Plus, I can still use my 2 free coupons. So essentially I'm getting double the movies. This just in time for the brand new server to get a workout.
Thursday, January 4, 2007
I got around to installing Ubuntu on the server. It actually was quite easy. I ended up having to burn 3 copies before it worked, and even then it didn't install all packages. Luckily, it was enough so that I could boot it and finish the install over internet. I then got Samba up and running so that the Xbox can see it. I started moving all my movies to the server from the various other computers. One thing that is odd is I'm only getting about 1M/s transfer rate. I know the Xbox can handle 10M/s, so maybe my servers card has improper settings.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
In preparation of having a functional server once again, I decided to re-examine my movie converting process. I fired up DivX Converter and noticed there was an update. Now, DivX Converter isn't the best tool. For one, there's only a few properties you can change, which makes it an easy tool for one-click converting, but there's no flexibility if you run into issues. Anyway, they had a new converting "profile" named High-Definition. I gave it a whirl, and it actually is quite an improvement over their Home Entertainment profile. On the 55", it was almost hard for me to see any video loss. Guess I'll continue to use Converter for now ...
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
The home server has been down for some time. I was running a full version of Mandriva, but it was just bogging the ancient machine. I now burned a copy of Ubuntu Server. It's suppose to be a snap to install. We'll see about that.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Alright, so I missed a few more days. I'm really trying to get into a routine and get my nightly posts in. I guess it's fitting that it's a new year and I'm resolving to do this blog.
Anyway, we had some friends and family over for the eve. It didn't get too out of hand this year. Everyone either left or went to bed before midnight and there were only three of us still around. We ended up watching a movie and didn't even bother pausing it for midnight.
I got up early and made breakfast. I recently watched V for Vendetta, so naturally I made Eggs in a Basket. I don't eat eggs, but everyone that ate them said they were good.
Anyway, we had some friends and family over for the eve. It didn't get too out of hand this year. Everyone either left or went to bed before midnight and there were only three of us still around. We ended up watching a movie and didn't even bother pausing it for midnight.
I got up early and made breakfast. I recently watched V for Vendetta, so naturally I made Eggs in a Basket. I don't eat eggs, but everyone that ate them said they were good.
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