Wednesday, August 31, 2005

I was able to put some further enhancements into my study site today. I still find it very satisfying to create an application out of nothing, and have it work correctly. Normally, I'd spend another few hours making it look pretty, but I'm running out of time and actually need to start using it to study.

I also spent some time tonight trying to help Karl get his samba share working between his Xbox and Windows machine. Everything seems in order, but there's got to be a simple setting we're missing. We were using Google's new talk program, and the lag was pretty bad. Unfortunately, I wasn't exactly using Google's UI, since they don't have a Linux version, yet. I had to use KDE's prepackaged program, Kopete. I must have an older version, because mine certainly doesn't look as pretty as the websites photos.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

I found I had 7 spam comments on recent posts. After manually deleting them, another 8 showed up. The spambot seems to have moved along. I noticed Blogger set up Word Verification recently to combat this. I may have to enable this.

I also tried to do a fresh install of Linux on the server, but it appears the hard drive has gone to a better place. I guess this is an excuse to go buy a new one. I happen to have about 5 hard drives laying around, but since they were used in old 386's, I don't think 720 MB will be enough space.

Monday, August 29, 2005

I had the day off today and went to the State Fair. I ate the usual fare: cheese curds, bucket of cookies, sweet corn, and a malt. I didn't get a chance to go to the bonsai display or the technology building. Last year, the tech exhibits were lame. It sure is a different experience pushing a four week old baby around. Instead of walking around watching people or looking at new exhibits, I found myself checking out the make and model of other parents baby strollers.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

I got a chance to open my two new Xbox's today. I bought both knowing they were failed attempts at chip modding. I opened the first one and it's pretty obvious why it won't boot. Most of the tracers on one side of the processor are all but gone. The second one won't even power up, implying the power supply is shot. I opened it anyway and there may be one or two tracers needing replaced on the mobo, but it looks like it may work as is. When I get another chance, I'm going to take the good power supply from the first Xbox and use it in the second, with hopefully good results. Stay tuned, maybe some photos will show up.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Damn, missed a post.

We had a few friends over tonight. It was good. A nice relaxing evening, of babies crying. I have Monday off and am looking forward to a three day weekend.

Thursday, August 25, 2005

I tried to finally watch a movie off the Xbox, and wouldn't you know, there was technically difficulties. I've been encoding the DTS sound, and I don't have the Xbox hooked up to my DTS decoder. Stupid. I've been trying to find the last cable of the collection to get this project done, but nowhere local sells it. I have one more store to check out and then I'll go to eBay.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Well, my car got broken into last night, again. It was the same bastards that did it before. They smashed the same window and tried to pry the radio out. I said it before and I'll say it again, there's no way you'd be able to get it out with a damn crowbar. Now, if you had a phillips screwdriver, that'd be a different story. Damn amateurs.

I almost want to leave the car out to temp them to try again. I'd set up a motion sensing video camera that would signal me somehow. I'm not exactly sure what I'd do if I caught them red-handed, but I'd have some footage of the mayhem.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

I'm coding three different projects right now, and am really enjoying all.

I think I finally got the picture process down. I'm using Picasa to organize, do minor editing, and exporting down-res'd images. Then I'm using Flickr to host the pictures and integrating them onto the family website using Oberkampf. This way I'll also be able to integrate Flickr on the Xbox.

Monday, August 22, 2005

I spent another day at work coding. I really miss not being able to stream music from the internet while working.

More importantly, the first package arrived today of Operation Xbox Expand. I got another wireless controller for use in the Fireplace Room. Now I'm just awaiting the second package ...

Sunday, August 21, 2005

I'm really behind on my studying, but it's so easy to not study, especially when the other projects are too numerous. Another movie night came and went, and no movie was to be seen. I bought a lot of stuff from eBay this past week, so hopefully it all comes this week, because I just don't have enough to do already.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

I got some more work done in the garage, and then headed over to Karl's. We were going to swap some games and movies between the Xbox's, but had a hard time getting the configuration to work. We ended up having to use his PC as a middle man, which was incredibly slow. We ran out of time for me to get anything he had, which is alright because he had nothing to offer. I'm sensing the scale is a little out of balance. Surely something that will be fixed next visit.

Right, Karl?

By the way, Bloggers spell check wanted to change "Karl's" to Carol, girl's, or careless.

Friday, August 19, 2005

I haven't had time to sit and watch a movie in some time. With my new schedule, I'll either have to learn to watch movies over many sittings (something I've always hated doing), or watch programs coming in smaller time increments. One show I've started watching on DVD is Sopranos. I've got a few more series in the queue to start watching.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

I spent the day at work building a program to help me study. It's a web application that will produce a pop up window throughout the day with a random question, basically note cards when I'm not expecting it. Since I'm at the computer the entire time I'm at work, this will help in the pounding of facts in my brain. I've got the front end built to enter, edit, and delete questions, and a page that produces the pop up at set intervals. I just need to figure out how I want to have the pop up show at random times. I'm going to let Knapper also use this to help test and debug it. Who knows, maybe I'll open it up to other students to use ... for an astronomical fee.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Where does the time go?

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Here's a little trick I've picked up. Most of the junk snail mail I receive is some sort of offer where you fill out a form and send it back using their "No Postage necessary" envelope. The companies pay the postage on these, only if they're sent back. So I usually stuff the envelope with all the crap they sent me and return it. Now, they have to pay the postage and get rid of their propaganda. And if you stuff it really full, the envelope can't fit through the automated postal sorter, and will get the manual sorted rate. Brilliant.

Hopefully this will increase the companies expenses, thereby causing them to see that sending junk mail is more expensive than it's worth. One small step for man ...

Monday, August 15, 2005

I wish I could remember what I read today that was cool. I have a tendency to read about a lot of topics. I couldn't tell you what any of those topics are, but if asked about something, I could rattle off everything I read about it. Even this post is half thought out.

It could be that I spent time in the garage sniffing expanding foam.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Since everybody was sleeping in and I couldn't work in the garage, I spent a few hours playing the latest addition to my Xbox library, Destroy All Humans!. My initial take is that it's funner than average. It has a quick learning curve, humor in the cut scenes and game play, and is easy to quit and come back to.

After the house woke up, I spent the rest of the day building the shelving in the garage. A before picture might have been worth it.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

I started "Phase I" of the garage project. I need to build some shelving to get the bins (5 of which is just Christmas crap) off the floor. In order to do this, I had to install two ceiling fans, which of course wobbled the house off the foundation. I also had to figure out where the network wiring will go, along with the TV, Xbox, and other AV equipment. "Phase I" is turning out to be bigger than I have time for.

Friday, August 12, 2005

I went to go get my two free in-store rentals from Blockbuster, and one of the printed coupons didn't work. The store said they couldn't do anything for me and that I should contact the online customer service. Yeah right. Every time I do that, I get some unrelated response from Sarif Sharphhreeghggh. I suppose looking at the big picture, I shouldn't complain. I'm saving a lot of money by using the coupons to rent games for my modded Xbox.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

I finally got a few hours of Xbox in tonight. I threw in Fable to give it another chance. I got through the training and started to go on a real quest, but had to quit just then. Many people say video games are a waste of time and brain power, but I find it quite therapeutic.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

On my list to do is to look into making sure the DirecTiVo was making its daily call since the switch to Vonage. Naturally I haven't looked into for a while. I think it's finally catching up with me since Season Passes are starting to not record due to "Insufficient Listing Information". I read somewhere that you have to set the unit to call New York for it to work with Vonage. Apparently this is a well known bug.

Tuesday, August 9, 2005

Another missed post, but this one wasn't my fault. The electricity went out for the entire neighborhood at around 9:30 and I couldn't stay awake to reboot the house. I watched this show about a community that is "off the grid", meaning no government or corporate sewer, water, or electricity. They had to light a fire to heat the water for their shower, which they only took every five days. But the cool thing was the solar panels they used to generate electricity. Apparently they've come down in price. Next blackout, I'm buying some.

Oh, and apparently I'm lonely enough to have a spambot comment on Sunday.

Sunday, August 7, 2005

Again, it's been a long time since I posted. I've either been in the hospital or, as a result, tending to a baby. They say that your life changes once you have a kid, and they aren't kidding. Now that it's been over a week since the birth, things have slightly settled. So I'm back in business.