Gadgets and Hacks: Misc

Showing posts with label Misc. Show all posts

12.12.2007

Holidays and Hacks

My xMas shopping is almost over- I just have one more gift to buy- but all of them still need to be wrapped! :o)

I finally purchased some eyeglasses so I do not need to wear contacts every day- in addition my flex spending option is due to expire at the end of the year; so it is use it or lose it!

Browsing around my normal RSS feeds I found that Microsoft has released Visa SP1 RTM to public beta; all that is needed is a registry patch from Microsoft.

I stumbled across a blog of someone that has hacked the serial port on the iPhone; I am not exactly sure what I would use this for, but it sounds like a fun project (now if they can figure out A2DP and GPS support via Bluetooth!)

I am going to an AMD and Microsoft tech tour, but I am currently waiting for traffic to die down a bit; I guess if I make it in time for part of the opening keynote I should be Ok. The Traffic.com web site seems to be a little better than the Georgia Navigator web site- even though I think the data is from the same source...

11.25.2007

Thanksgiving Vacation

My vacation all plans collapsed all at the last moment; Tracy's great aunt passed away on Friday (she had been sick for a while and it was expected) so the trip to Europe has been postponed (Spring?) and Diana decided to cancel her trip down to Louisiana. Tracy left for New Jersey on Tuesday so I have had a few day to myself (with Betty, of course). It has been fairly therapeutic...

I have decided to work on meditation- before I get to old to be able to... I found some interesting FLAC files for HoloSync- which (supposedly) can induce alpha brain wave patterns (and later 'lessons' progressing to theta and delta patterns) similar to those attained after years of deep meditation. I had to convert the FLAC to lossless AAC so they will play on my iPod- so far they are fairly interesting.

Other things I have accomplished this vacation:

I fixed our gate:

I hung some curtain rods (for Tracy):

I installed a new webcam (to replace a crappy-ass X-10 camera):

I bought a new stereo receiver (an Onkyo SR-TX705):

I got a Christmas Tree:

I replaced my KVM:

(I got tired of waiting for Alurtek support to tell me if they can send me a v2 of the AKSUP02D KVM Switch so I now have an IOData GCS932U Micro DVI/USB KVM):

I cleaned up my desk:

In addition I also:

Rebuilt my main PC- twice... I am now running Vista as my primary OS
Rebuilt my Media PC- also running Vista
Upgraded my Mac to OS X 10.5 (again)
Fixed my X-10 setup so I can control the XMas tree and lights via timers
Finished 'Portal' from the Orange Box
Got 60 stars in Super Mario Galaxy (now I just have to finish the final level!)
Got some of my xMas shopping started
Spent 10+ hours re-organizing my photos in iPhoto
Figured out how to make iTunes on my Mac store its music library on a network drive

I tried the 'Black Friday' crawl; I ended up buying some used DVDs at MovieStop and having lunch at Burger King. Fry's: 100+ people deep in the check-out lines at 10:00am; BrandSmart: no place to part at 11:00am; BestBuy, MicroCenter and Target had crappy sales; and Wal-Mart- Wow; talk about a disaster area...

One thing I thought was funny at WalMart was some woman bitching to her friend on her cell phone how someone else had hit her with their cart- but at the moment this woman was sitting behind her cart and parked broadside across the aisle- and in her 'distressed' condition was ignoring everyone that was trying to get around her... Some people just don't have a clue.

Tomorrow's quest: hang the outside Christmas lights... This will take at least 2-3 hours- and hopefully it be above 40 degrees and not windy! If I have some time left over I will start decorating the tree!

10.07.2007

Weekend

This weekend went by fairly quick as I haven't had the time to stop.

On Sunday I moved a queen sized bed in and and out of my room- the later one I eventually carried up two flights of (yard) stairs to another house; I call this the 'bed recycling' move. My 'new' bed is much better than the former denizen- but I will need to get used to it being so much softer (but my dog definitely seems to like it!)

After this I did a little shopping with Tracy- but still no 0734 or newer xBox 360 lots on the shelves at BestBuy or Target- so no major purchases for me. Around 2pm I received a call that 'everything is down' at the office. I went in and it turns out that a fiber-optic cable was cut so all Metro-E traffic to Atlanta was down for about 2 hours- so 'everything' was just the Internet- and related email, web servers, VPN access and blackberry server messages. Once the repair was complete all systems were back online.

Today I moved another bed with Diana- but this one was only a full size. This along with a fairly large entertainment center was moved to a storage unit in preparation for staging a house- by the realtors recommendations. After the truck was unloaded and returned to Lowes ($19 for 70 mins!), I was able to setup their ReplayTV, install a KVM switch, and get their Internet connection straightened out: Mindspring Netopia DSL modem/routers must be changed into bridged mode for them to work properly behind a router.

Some grocery shopping on the way home, a little religious discussion with one of the neighborhood vagrants named Major and I am ready to get a shower and then jump back into Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass...

by the way: I finished Heroes Season 1 last week- this show is almost as good as the new Battlestar Galactica...