I get sidetracked easily. I don't think I suffer from attention deficit disorder, but I do have a tendency to go off on a tangent and end up somewhere totally different than where I started.
I had already planned out what my first 'real post' was going to be about. I had already decided that I was going to take my system status application of choice (which isn't really a system status application in and of itself) and do a write-up on its use and how I use it specifically. I still fully intend on doing that, but that will have to wait a little while.
'Real post' number one is about starting to change the house's network from a mix of 10/100Mb and 802.11b/g networking to 1Gb and having a separate b and g access point. Speed is not actually where this project started, though it's a nice side effect.
So why do it? The core of the house network is in a bedroom, which as anyone with more than a few computers will likely know, is a very inconvenient place for the core of a network to be. Power in that room isn't overly reliable and it's occupied by a 14-year old whose internet access is restricted at the router, giving him easy physical access to it. As anyone who deals with security knows, physical access negates security as router reset buttons negate passwords. Sure I could probably disable the reset button, but that's a lot of hassle and doesn't solve the location problem. So into the basement office, everything will go.
Since I have to pull new coax for the modem and will have to pull at least one new line to link the aforementioned 14-year old's room, I might as well just do the whole house. This also gives me the excuse to reroute the coax that I pulled earlier this year up into the walls and set up proper outlets for everything. I will likely pull at least one, maybe two, ethernet jack as well as one coax, and one phone jack per room. The phone brings up a whole different possibility with new hardware and such. One thing at a time, though.
For now, the promise of faster media streaming, and less wireless clutter is very appealing to me.
Reviewing my roots (aka: don't login as root)
This entry was originally the inaugural post to this blog before I merged an older personal blog into it. I'm leaving the post intact, below:
I've been thinking about this for a while but a few things that have changed in my daily routine have made me decide to stop thinking and start doing. So without my usual (hence the name of this blog) ramblings, on with the show.
My personal blog has started to take a somewhat technical bent as of late. As such, I've decided to branch out and keep things separate (more or less). Here I plan to spout off about things of the geek nature which just so happen to be tickling my fancy, yanking my chain, or otherwise getting in my face. I make no promise to release schedules, nor that my personal life won't end up here. After all, I'm a geek at heart, so keeping my personal life out of it all together will be hard.
Why should you read, why should you care? Hell if I know but I'll tell you a little about who I am; you can decide for yourself after that.
I'm a thirty-something geek of all trades (master of none) with a particular bent towards audio/video. My formal education spans classic arts (drawing, painting, clay sculpture), music (violin and piano), electronics, graphics arts (photography, print layout), radio and television broadcasting, as well as network management (back in the Netware days w/thinnet weee!), business application programming (C, COBOL, RPG, Clipper, Visual Basic), and a little general expert system development for taste. After school I started my training in taming the beast that is FreeBSD since 2.2.6, Linux still makes me cringe, Windows has its place (but I still think MSDOS 5.5 was the last decent OS Microsoft ever made, so long as you were running DESQview), and spend most of my time now in OS X. I'm no Apple fanboy but I do own an iPhone (in the interest of full disclosure).
Can't call me a 'gamer' but I do own a PS3. Don't really enjoy PC gaming as a whole but I do keep a WinXP partition on my Mac specifically to play Evil Genius. Read into that what you will. In fact, I'm not sure that any of the commonly accepted subclasses of geek really apply properly to me. All in all, I'm just me... an elder-n00b. For those that chose to check in on me from time to time, I'll be putting my own spin on life, tech, and the way they come together.
I've been thinking about this for a while but a few things that have changed in my daily routine have made me decide to stop thinking and start doing. So without my usual (hence the name of this blog) ramblings, on with the show.
My personal blog has started to take a somewhat technical bent as of late. As such, I've decided to branch out and keep things separate (more or less). Here I plan to spout off about things of the geek nature which just so happen to be tickling my fancy, yanking my chain, or otherwise getting in my face. I make no promise to release schedules, nor that my personal life won't end up here. After all, I'm a geek at heart, so keeping my personal life out of it all together will be hard.
Why should you read, why should you care? Hell if I know but I'll tell you a little about who I am; you can decide for yourself after that.
I'm a thirty-something geek of all trades (master of none) with a particular bent towards audio/video. My formal education spans classic arts (drawing, painting, clay sculpture), music (violin and piano), electronics, graphics arts (photography, print layout), radio and television broadcasting, as well as network management (back in the Netware days w/thinnet weee!), business application programming (C, COBOL, RPG, Clipper, Visual Basic), and a little general expert system development for taste. After school I started my training in taming the beast that is FreeBSD since 2.2.6, Linux still makes me cringe, Windows has its place (but I still think MSDOS 5.5 was the last decent OS Microsoft ever made, so long as you were running DESQview), and spend most of my time now in OS X. I'm no Apple fanboy but I do own an iPhone (in the interest of full disclosure).
Can't call me a 'gamer' but I do own a PS3. Don't really enjoy PC gaming as a whole but I do keep a WinXP partition on my Mac specifically to play Evil Genius. Read into that what you will. In fact, I'm not sure that any of the commonly accepted subclasses of geek really apply properly to me. All in all, I'm just me... an elder-n00b. For those that chose to check in on me from time to time, I'll be putting my own spin on life, tech, and the way they come together.
At this rate I won't need to turn on the heater
So another device gets added to my network today. My son now has his own PS3. The upside is that he will stop wanting to use mine while I'm trying to watch a movie. The downside is that we've got to keep our controllers plugged in until we can figure out how to keep them from associating with each other's consoles. Turns out just connecting them does that. Now I'm not sure what would happen if I tried to use one of my controllers on his system. Perhaps a test is in order.
Reinstalling Mediatomb on my G4 iMac so that he can access my movie library (and so I can too). Just have to remember to be selective about what he can access, and stuff.
In other news or old news as it's all over now. My new, as of a few weeks ago, MacBook got replaced yesterday. This past Saturday the drive failed. My fellow hardware geeks will understand *whirl* *thud* *tick* *tick* *tick* etc... It did eventually boot, but after explaining what happened, and a quick listen to the drive, the 'genius' at the Apple store took back my system and gave me a new one. Fortunately, I didn't have anything on the drive except software. All of which I have already reinstalled. Except, of course, for setting up Bootcamp and putting Windows XP back on so I can play Evil Genius.
I know one would say 'it was new, they're supposed to do that', but I am very impressed with Apple's response to what happened. Since it was booting when I took it in I figured they would want to 'take a look at it' or something. Instead, it was just one question 'do you have a back up of your data?'. In a time of less than stellar customer service, having a no questions asked replacement for something that seemed to be working when I brought it in, was nice.
O'kay, I'm going back to looking for the cap for my 4GB memory stick... why do I keep losing the caps to these things?
Reinstalling Mediatomb on my G4 iMac so that he can access my movie library (and so I can too). Just have to remember to be selective about what he can access, and stuff.
In other news or old news as it's all over now. My new, as of a few weeks ago, MacBook got replaced yesterday. This past Saturday the drive failed. My fellow hardware geeks will understand *whirl* *thud* *tick* *tick* *tick* etc... It did eventually boot, but after explaining what happened, and a quick listen to the drive, the 'genius' at the Apple store took back my system and gave me a new one. Fortunately, I didn't have anything on the drive except software. All of which I have already reinstalled. Except, of course, for setting up Bootcamp and putting Windows XP back on so I can play Evil Genius.
I know one would say 'it was new, they're supposed to do that', but I am very impressed with Apple's response to what happened. Since it was booting when I took it in I figured they would want to 'take a look at it' or something. Instead, it was just one question 'do you have a back up of your data?'. In a time of less than stellar customer service, having a no questions asked replacement for something that seemed to be working when I brought it in, was nice.
O'kay, I'm going back to looking for the cap for my 4GB memory stick... why do I keep losing the caps to these things?
Never thought I'd say this; glad that I can
I've never been one for 'queen and country' kinds of feelings. For as far back as I can remember I didn't say the pledge of allegiance when I was in school or anywhere else since then that it might have come up. Sure I stand up, and keep silent out of respect, but that's about it. I've never sought to own the flag of my country, or any other symbols that one displays to show their patriotism. All in all I haven't had much good to say about the country I was born to. Are there worse places to be, certainly... but not once in my 34 years do I ever recall thinking that I was proud to be a citizen of the US.
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I am proud of the country I call home. That day saw a lot of setbacks. A great many people had their personal liberties destroyed due to hate and fear because after hundreds of years of a government that sought to separate church and state we can't seem to keep from passing faith-based laws.
Even though more states within our union have put another nail in the coffin of personal freedoms. I still feel pride. Not because we as a people elected a man who has held to his path from the day he started his campaign, not because my home state broke from the tradition of being a predominately Republican state, and not even that dispute my distract siding with McCain it did so by only 1,622 votes (just about 1%). I am proud because just 145 years after the first steps were taken to end slavery we have elected into the highest office in our land a man that were he to have been alive in this country those 145 years ago would likely have been thought of as only property. I am proud because 43 years after President Johnson signed an act that made it illegal to block black people from voting, a man who would not have been allowed to vote was himself voted in as the commander-in-chief of our armed forces. I am proud because on that day, that 4th day of November, 2008 we as a majority did not vote in a 'black man', or a 'religious man', we voted in a man... regardless of race, religion, or creed, we came together and voted in a man with whom we now rest our hopes and dreams. The dreams of one day seeing these United States of America become the great land it has always thought itself to be.
He can't do it alone but then he didn't get where he is now alone. We all must become the change we want to see, the change we need to see in this land and in this world. We've already shown that we as a people in the US want this change to happen. Senator Obama, become President-Elect Obama, could not be where he is now if we didn't. Now, more than ever before, we need to be a single people with a single goal. That goal is to make this country a great one and one all of its people can live in as equals no matter who they pray to, if they pray at all, or who they say I love you to, if they find themselves lucky enough to have someone whom to say it to, and no matter how far they've come in life because we all have so much farther to go.
I am proud of you America... I am proud of us all.
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 for the first time in my life, I can honestly say that I am proud of the country I call home. That day saw a lot of setbacks. A great many people had their personal liberties destroyed due to hate and fear because after hundreds of years of a government that sought to separate church and state we can't seem to keep from passing faith-based laws.
Even though more states within our union have put another nail in the coffin of personal freedoms. I still feel pride. Not because we as a people elected a man who has held to his path from the day he started his campaign, not because my home state broke from the tradition of being a predominately Republican state, and not even that dispute my distract siding with McCain it did so by only 1,622 votes (just about 1%). I am proud because just 145 years after the first steps were taken to end slavery we have elected into the highest office in our land a man that were he to have been alive in this country those 145 years ago would likely have been thought of as only property. I am proud because 43 years after President Johnson signed an act that made it illegal to block black people from voting, a man who would not have been allowed to vote was himself voted in as the commander-in-chief of our armed forces. I am proud because on that day, that 4th day of November, 2008 we as a majority did not vote in a 'black man', or a 'religious man', we voted in a man... regardless of race, religion, or creed, we came together and voted in a man with whom we now rest our hopes and dreams. The dreams of one day seeing these United States of America become the great land it has always thought itself to be.
He can't do it alone but then he didn't get where he is now alone. We all must become the change we want to see, the change we need to see in this land and in this world. We've already shown that we as a people in the US want this change to happen. Senator Obama, become President-Elect Obama, could not be where he is now if we didn't. Now, more than ever before, we need to be a single people with a single goal. That goal is to make this country a great one and one all of its people can live in as equals no matter who they pray to, if they pray at all, or who they say I love you to, if they find themselves lucky enough to have someone whom to say it to, and no matter how far they've come in life because we all have so much farther to go.
I am proud of you America... I am proud of us all.
You will be assimilated, and you'll like it
O'kay, so that new toy comment from my last post... I bought a new computer. I thought about it and decided that it was time that I untethered myself from my desk. So I am now the owner of a new MacBook. I thought about getting the Pro for the firewire port, but I have an iMac and a Windows PC with firewire, so it's not like I don't have access to systems with that support. I opted for the lower of the new aluminum models. The cost/price balance just put me there. Extra RAM can be added later, as can the HD swapped out. I don't really care all that much about a backlit keyboard, so why spend the extra money for things I don't need? Right?
Anyway, since buying it I've been let out of work early most days and have been taking my new gear to a deli near work with free wifi and chilling out with a nice sandwich. Also, I transcode video pretty frequently and things that were taking 5 to 8 hours on my G4 iMac are taking an hour or so on the new system using the exact same software. Speed (as my employer likes to say in their commercials) is beautiful.
I was stressing out a little over how to manage my calendars and address book between my two machines, as I don't want to make either one my primary system. I also don't want to spend the rather exorbitant cost for a .Mac (or MobileMe as they call it now) account just so my information is the same across both computers. Well turns out that I don't have to worry at all, I just have to be a little more diligent about syncing my phone... to both computers. Problem solved.
Speaking of phones, a few months back I became the owner of an iPhone 3G. I know, I know, just sinking deeper into the Cult of Apple; paying homage to my leader, The Great and Powerful Steve. hehe. What can I say, I like their hardware and their software. I'm not so much a fan of their business practices but I am all about choosing the lesser of the two evils, or how many other evils there might happen to be to chose from.
No, I haven't jailbroken the phone... may, may not. Not sure. Other than tethering the thing I haven't really come across anything just yet that I might want to do with the phone that I can't get an app from the official app store to do. We will see.
In regards to my iPhone, I picked up a Griffin AirCurve the other day from their website. They were offering free shipping, and from Griffin's Facebook page there was a discount code to take 25% off, so it was only $14.99 USD, and I got it in less than 48 hours. yay! It's a stand for the iPhone that channels the sound from the built-in speaker through a waveguide which increases the volume about 10dB without any electronics. Works really well. I use my phone as my alarm clock. With the iPhone, my choices have been low volume and right next to my bed or high volume across the room. With low volume next to the bed, it was really easy to turn off the alarm before I was actually awake. With high volume, there was the risk of damaging the speaker. Now that isn't a problem.
Now I called it a stand and not a dock because by itself it isn't a dock. There is a path through the center which you can feed a charging cable to make it into a dock, which I have. The nice bit about that is that you can just pick the thing up and take it where ever you might need wide audience sound without any extra power but the option to power up is there with the use of pretty much any USB iPhone charging cable you might be able to find. Obviously, Griffin's fits best but the Apple one works pretty well, too. Belikn's seems to be patterned after Griffin's so I'm assuming that would work just as well.
Lastly Netflix just announced that they are opening beta testing of Watch Instantly via Microsoft Silverlight. The nice bit about this is that means that Mac users with Intel based systems can now use it. I just recently became a Netflix user and with my new Mac, this is a good thing. I tested it tonight by watching episode 1 season 1 of MI:5. I've caught bits of that show over time and always wanted to see the whole thing. Now I can. Season 1 and 2 are available until December 1st, so watch quickly if you're interested. I would like to be able to watch these things directly on my TV but no go just yet. The current iteration of the Silverlight player has a lot of obvious image tearing, even in low action scenes. It's beta, we'll see.
In less than 6 hours the polls open in my district, I'm not going THAT early but I will be there. If you're in the US, and you haven't already voted absentee, I beg you to get out today and do it. Do I care who you vote for? Sure, I would prefer that you voted along with me but more than that I would prefer that you vote. This country is too screwed up to just sit back and let other people continue to make the decisions.
That is all, you may return to your irregularly scheduled lives, already in progress.
Anyway, since buying it I've been let out of work early most days and have been taking my new gear to a deli near work with free wifi and chilling out with a nice sandwich. Also, I transcode video pretty frequently and things that were taking 5 to 8 hours on my G4 iMac are taking an hour or so on the new system using the exact same software. Speed (as my employer likes to say in their commercials) is beautiful.
I was stressing out a little over how to manage my calendars and address book between my two machines, as I don't want to make either one my primary system. I also don't want to spend the rather exorbitant cost for a .Mac (or MobileMe as they call it now) account just so my information is the same across both computers. Well turns out that I don't have to worry at all, I just have to be a little more diligent about syncing my phone... to both computers. Problem solved.
Speaking of phones, a few months back I became the owner of an iPhone 3G. I know, I know, just sinking deeper into the Cult of Apple; paying homage to my leader, The Great and Powerful Steve. hehe. What can I say, I like their hardware and their software. I'm not so much a fan of their business practices but I am all about choosing the lesser of the two evils, or how many other evils there might happen to be to chose from.
No, I haven't jailbroken the phone... may, may not. Not sure. Other than tethering the thing I haven't really come across anything just yet that I might want to do with the phone that I can't get an app from the official app store to do. We will see.
In regards to my iPhone, I picked up a Griffin AirCurve the other day from their website. They were offering free shipping, and from Griffin's Facebook page there was a discount code to take 25% off, so it was only $14.99 USD, and I got it in less than 48 hours. yay! It's a stand for the iPhone that channels the sound from the built-in speaker through a waveguide which increases the volume about 10dB without any electronics. Works really well. I use my phone as my alarm clock. With the iPhone, my choices have been low volume and right next to my bed or high volume across the room. With low volume next to the bed, it was really easy to turn off the alarm before I was actually awake. With high volume, there was the risk of damaging the speaker. Now that isn't a problem.
Now I called it a stand and not a dock because by itself it isn't a dock. There is a path through the center which you can feed a charging cable to make it into a dock, which I have. The nice bit about that is that you can just pick the thing up and take it where ever you might need wide audience sound without any extra power but the option to power up is there with the use of pretty much any USB iPhone charging cable you might be able to find. Obviously, Griffin's fits best but the Apple one works pretty well, too. Belikn's seems to be patterned after Griffin's so I'm assuming that would work just as well.
Lastly Netflix just announced that they are opening beta testing of Watch Instantly via Microsoft Silverlight. The nice bit about this is that means that Mac users with Intel based systems can now use it. I just recently became a Netflix user and with my new Mac, this is a good thing. I tested it tonight by watching episode 1 season 1 of MI:5. I've caught bits of that show over time and always wanted to see the whole thing. Now I can. Season 1 and 2 are available until December 1st, so watch quickly if you're interested. I would like to be able to watch these things directly on my TV but no go just yet. The current iteration of the Silverlight player has a lot of obvious image tearing, even in low action scenes. It's beta, we'll see.
In less than 6 hours the polls open in my district, I'm not going THAT early but I will be there. If you're in the US, and you haven't already voted absentee, I beg you to get out today and do it. Do I care who you vote for? Sure, I would prefer that you voted along with me but more than that I would prefer that you vote. This country is too screwed up to just sit back and let other people continue to make the decisions.
That is all, you may return to your irregularly scheduled lives, already in progress.
The change we need, the view I didn't have
So I went to the Obama rally in Norfolk, VA tonight. Those of you that follow me on Twitter prolly got tired of seeing my comments. It wasn't bad, a little shorter than I was expecting, but then I've never been to a rally before so what do I know?
He's a decent speaker, needs to either wear a lavaliere or remember to only talk when facing the microphones. Still, a decent speaker. Some people say that the photos and video of him speaking don't do him justice. I wouldn't know, I had to turn around and watch him on the screen at the back of the stadium because there was no line of sight to the stage from where I could get to.
Oh well, still it was interesting to see the people that showed up. The variety of people. All ages, nationalities, and by their dress economic groups too. I saw people in obvious hand-me-down coats, to well-tailored suits standing in the back with me. Was also interesting to see the detractors that showed up. The barkers along the side of the road as I walked from my car to the stadium. They weren't politically motivated McCain supporters like I thought they might be. They were members of the 'Religious Reich'. The fear-mongering, Bible-thumping, 'if you don't believe like I believe then you can't be a good person' types. They held up signs like "Follow Jesus/Fear God". Never understood why I should want to fear the force that supposedly created me and allowed 'their son' to die so that I who had not even been born yet could be forgiven of sins I had not even committed yet. That's another post altogether, though.
I can't say it was fun but then I can't say it wasn't. It was interesting, it was cold, and above all it was me doing something I don't usually do. It's a thing I'm trying. Not the new me but the me I never knew.
Play time now... new toys... more on that later.
He's a decent speaker, needs to either wear a lavaliere or remember to only talk when facing the microphones. Still, a decent speaker. Some people say that the photos and video of him speaking don't do him justice. I wouldn't know, I had to turn around and watch him on the screen at the back of the stadium because there was no line of sight to the stage from where I could get to.
Oh well, still it was interesting to see the people that showed up. The variety of people. All ages, nationalities, and by their dress economic groups too. I saw people in obvious hand-me-down coats, to well-tailored suits standing in the back with me. Was also interesting to see the detractors that showed up. The barkers along the side of the road as I walked from my car to the stadium. They weren't politically motivated McCain supporters like I thought they might be. They were members of the 'Religious Reich'. The fear-mongering, Bible-thumping, 'if you don't believe like I believe then you can't be a good person' types. They held up signs like "Follow Jesus/Fear God". Never understood why I should want to fear the force that supposedly created me and allowed 'their son' to die so that I who had not even been born yet could be forgiven of sins I had not even committed yet. That's another post altogether, though.
I can't say it was fun but then I can't say it wasn't. It was interesting, it was cold, and above all it was me doing something I don't usually do. It's a thing I'm trying. Not the new me but the me I never knew.
Play time now... new toys... more on that later.
Pardon me while I have a geeky *squee* moment
O'kay this is a rare moment for me. I don't go 'fanboy' over anything and I certainly am not the kind to be phased by 'star power'.
I've met and hung out with the members of Sister Machine Gun and Gravity Kills in the same night after they did a show at that same club. Very cool but never once did I achieve squee. Tonight that has changed.
I got notified that my twitter account is now being followed by Cali Lewis of geekbrief.tv and I achieved squee. I am a dork, I know. I am o'kay with this. :)
I've met and hung out with the members of Sister Machine Gun and Gravity Kills in the same night after they did a show at that same club. Very cool but never once did I achieve squee. Tonight that has changed.
I got notified that my twitter account is now being followed by Cali Lewis of geekbrief.tv and I achieved squee. I am a dork, I know. I am o'kay with this. :)
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