Sunday, September 18, 2005

Down in the movie room, my AV receiver only has two component inputs. The HD DirecTiVo and the progressive scan DVD player were using these. I replaced the DVD player with Mobil (the Xbox) to utilize any HD content from Mobil. Well, I went to watch an episode of Sopranos, and naturally Mobil couldn't play the DVD. As it turns out, XBMC uses the Microsoft DVD playback software, which requires the DVD dongle. However, I learned today that the 2005-09-12 CVS build of XBMC has now an integrated DVD player, with menu support. It looks like an upgrade is needed.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

I'm still experiencing delays on the home phone through Vonage. It seems there is a lag between talkers. At first I thought it was only happening when I received a call from a cell phone, but it's happening during other types of calls as well. My new theory is it happens during peak internet times. The internet traffic obviously is worst during evenings and weekends. More testing is needed.

Friday, September 16, 2005

We moved down two rows at work today. Instead of boxing and getting a cart, I just walked my stacks of papers and books down the aisle, which got me thinking. Our cubes should be completely modular. Just think, if you need to move, a forklift could swing by, hoist up your entire cube and bring you to your new spot. You wouldn't have to pack a thing. In fact, you could still be in your cube when they move you. Better yet, when you get in your cube in the morning, it is stacked on top of a big pile of cubes and when you need to leave, the conveyor belt will bring you to ground level. Imagine a big skyscraper of cube blocks that is so tight and things are going on all around you without your awareness.

Wait a second ... something seems familiar.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

I've been driving my car to work almost every day for a while, and because the thieves smashed my climate control, I've been getting hot air spewing on me and can't turn it off. Not only do I have hot are blowing on me, but I'm in my work clothes and it's been somewhat hot outside. Luckily I only have to go 6 miles.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Karl gave me a call after the cable installer left. It seems he got a pretty crappy installer. It seems the guy punched unnecessary holes in the wall, which is stupid since Karl and I prewired the inside. Then he set up the broadband bypassing the router. Of coarse, when Karl hooked up the router, the internet didn't work due to Comcast's MAC address verification. Luckily with new routers, it's as easy as cloning. I think this was the first time that a problem was solved on the same phone call

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

I went over to Karl's to help him finish some wiring. He's been using DSL and will make the switch to Comcast cable. Now I know that there are many variables in determining whether DSL or cable is better, but I've never used a DSL line that was anywhere near the speed of cable. I guess we'll see after he gets it up and running.

Anyway, one thing led to another, and I didn't get to bed until 1:30. As usual, tomorrow's going to be fun trying to stay awake. I'll never learn.

Monday, September 12, 2005

I was in the garage today, and I noticed the bastard squirrel had eaten through another piece of wood that I nailed up to block his original entrance. Originally, I sprayed some of that expanding foam, but he just walked through that. Then I got smart and tried 2x4's, and apparently was outsmarted. All were good ideas, until I realized that he was built to chew through things. I guess the next step is either chili peppers or the guillotine.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

I went to some family functions today. I checked the camera for the battery status. There was an extra set in the case, so I figured I was good. Well, after a few shots, the batteries in the camera went. And of course the batteries in the case were dead. Luckily, the camera takes AA batteries and I was able to find some extra, but I sure need to rethink my rechargeable battery process.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

I got to watch a few tennis matches today, all in incredible high definition. I'll have to admit that it's been a while since I watched anything HD, partly because there's just not many quality shows. But after seeing tennis, it's time to find something worth watching just for HD sake.

I was as giddy as a school girl.

Friday, September 9, 2005

I spent a lot of time working with Coppermine. It seems like it will work pretty good. It's a bit bloated as far as code, but as long as it gets the job done for now, I won't mind.

I also started wiring the garage for extra lights, and am planning the AV and network wiring. There's nothing like playing Xbox in the garage with some buddies.

Thursday, September 8, 2005

I got the final component to the jumble of wires in the movie room. This one will allow the Xbox to output DTS. Maybe more importantly, I won't have to press a few buttons to get both Xbox video and audio ... only one mere button.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

I stayed up way to late watching the US Open. My all time favorite player Agassi was playing in possibly his last Open. It was quite a good match lasting into the wee hours of the morning. I'm not sure if he can go all the way this year, but he's sure fun to watch.

Also, I've been trying to make the Oberkampf script more robust to allow other users on the family blog to incorporate a photo gallery. But for some reason, I just can't get it to work. I'm sure it's something simple. I'd like to try to figure it out, as it uses Flickr to host and organize the photos. I'm currently looking into other options. I'd like to write my own and incorporate it into Nucleus, but we all know that won't happen.

Tuesday, September 6, 2005

So, I've been seeing a lot of photos and footage of the hurricane damage and flooding. It's been over a week now and people are still being rescued from rooftops. And there are still people waiting to be bused out or have decided to just stick around. It's almost hard for me to comprehend. You're at work one day, studying and surfing the net, and the next you're running from rising waters. Then on top of it, the sole goal everyday from that point is to stay alive, either on a heated rooftop with no food or wandering the city with nothing to eat. Life as it existed before is completely gone.

This is getting too deep. I gotta go steal some songs.

Monday, September 5, 2005

I went over to Karl's to fix his Xbox networking once and for all. We just can't seem to figure it out. I set his network up very similar to mine, and still nothing. Everything seems in order. I'm sure Karl's hiding something very important from me. My only conclusion is that he put up his surround speakers before me, and subconsciously I don't want to fix the problem for him.

Sunday, September 4, 2005

Another lazy day. For as much as I complain about not getting projects done, I find myself enjoying not doing them. Do what makes you happy, right?

Saturday, September 3, 2005

I stayed up pretty late tonight, goofing off on the computer and Xbox. I was able to swap components between my two fried Xbox's in an attempt to build one good one. No luck. It looks like I'll be soldering some new circuitry after all.

Friday, September 2, 2005

Not only did I get to wear jeans to work, but was able to leave at 2:00. Ahh, the little things.

Thursday, September 1, 2005

I went and bought a new 100GB hard drive from a dude in the shady part of town for $50. Now I can start the server rebuild. I quickly checked the going rate from Best Buy, and right now they have a deal on a 300GB for $100. I know, 3 times the storage for twice the money, but who has time to deal with rebates? The way I figure it, by the time I need more space, prices will once again have dropped.

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.