My Ramblings

Tonight...

2011-07-30T23:04:00.001-04:00

Tonight I was reminded how wonderful it is to be a Mac user. A month ago or so, my in-laws bought a new laptop and I started getting emails from them that had images hosted on a skydrive. I thought nothing of it, but tonight I was asked why it was happening, so I took a look. For some unknown reason Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that if you use their default windows mail application and you attach images to an email or if you use their client to send images from picasa, etc, it labels it as a "photo email" and takes the images hostage and automatically uploads them to the skydive and attaches some tiny thumbnails in the .png format to the email.

I spent the better of an hour trying to work around the problem, finally stumbling on to a setting buried several levels down in the windows mail live 2011 app. The setting supposedly was to disable emails with images being sent as "photo emails", but alas, the still did...

In the past 3 years as a Mac user I have never had to work so hard to get my computer to do a simple task that I asked of it.

This would have been such a non-issue with Apple Mail and iPhoto!

Re: hi

2011-01-05T02:08:00.001-05:00

I hope that no one clicked the link. Oh well, looks like my email was
hacked. My apologies!

Luckily my gmail password is unique to my other logins.

I'll take this time to remind folks not to have a single password for
all their logins. And it's a good idea to periodically change those
passwords!

I wonder who in china is responsible for this!

Marlin Schrock.

On Monday, November 22, 2010, Marlin Schrock <marlin.schrock@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi, my dear friend
> i am really happy with my new Ipone4 .
> i order from here :< www.newelecn.com>
> take a look , sure you will like it
> thousands of products .
> save more than 30%!
> enjoy here
>

--
Marlin Schrock

See my blog at: http://ki4aoa.blogspot.com

My what a pretty lock you have there…

2010-12-06T10:01:00.003-05:00

If you have ever used the basement door at the house I live at you know of the Master Lock 5400D portable lock box attached to the door knob. Usually I pinch myself on it when I open the door. It was put on there by a previous resident, and no one knew the combo.

My father-in-law said he was going to cut it off with a bolt cutter, but I told him to hold off and let me see if I could remove it intact. I was introduced to the sport of lockpicking from my brother-in-law, Mark. Doing a little research online yielded very little other than lots of other folks with the same question as I. Could the master 5400d be easily opened without destroying it?

Let it be known that the $29 lockbox is fairly insecure, as I an inexperienced novice who has never picked a lock an has no lockpicking tools opened it in less than an hour. And that was cut to less than 2 minutes after I did it the first time!I look forward to more lockpicking challenges in the future!

How I scored an iPhone 4 on launch day.

2010-06-26T08:16:00.003-04:00

On June 15 I tried to preorder an 32GB iPhone 4 and have it shipped to
my home on launch day. I started at 4:30 am and finally gave up at 8
am. Due to a little thing called work, I couldn't try again until 11 pm, and by that time, the shipping date
had slipped to July 2nd. I said screw it, and placed the order. I
wasn't happy, but I was getting an iPhone. By the next day I was
feeling good! The shipping date for new orders had slipped to july 15th.

June 23rd I decided to stop by Best Buy to see if they were going to
have any phones for walk up customers on launch day. When I asked,
the girl said to hold on that they had a situation, and that she would
have to call the manager and ask her. Umm. She called the manager and
then she asked me what time I could be there to pickup a phone! I
said I could be there at 7 am.
Apparently, they had a person back out of a preorder, and they had an extra!

I gave her my info, and she wrote my name on the glorious iPhone 4 box.

Thursday morning I arrive at the store at 6:40am. There were two other
guys and the best buy mobile manager. We chatted for a while, then a
little after 7 am they let us in the store and I got my phone!

I drove home and immediately cancelled the apple.com preorder.

The only downside to all this was the small detail that I ended up
getting a 16GB model instead of a 32GB.

At any rate, I'm loving my iPhone 4!

Amarillo Pale Ale

2010-04-25T10:18:00.003-04:00

Saturday, April 24th, 2010, I brewed my first solo all grain batch of beer. I am eager to see how it turns out, since I failed on so many levels.

- Killed my thermometer, and didn't know the exact temp of sparge water.
- Apparently when I took the pre-boil specific gravity reading, the first running and the second running weren't mixed properly, so it showed 1.060, freaking me out.
- Added approx 3 quarts of water, to the boil correcting the then feared "to high of efficency."
- At end of boil, wort was at 1.050, way under what I wanted.
- Took longer to chill than I wanted.
- Forgot to aerate wort.
- When pitching yeast, found that the Activator smack pack wasn't "smacked." Before brewing, I tried for 20 minutes to break the tiny inner pouch, thought that I did. However, at pitching time the pack was swelled tight.

Looking back at the few facts:

After boil and water addition specific gravity: 1.050
Starting pre-boil wort volume: 7.5 Gal
Freakout water addition: 0.75 Gal
After boil wort volume: 6.75 Gal

Entering that info into several online calculators, I can deduce:

The actual pre-boil SG was: 1.045, which translates to a mash efficiency of 80%. (Pretty Good!) Had I left it alone and not diluted the wort, it would have been fine, with a OG of 1.056, or 5.6% ABV. Instead with the 0.75 Gal of water added, I'll get 4.9% ABV, which is what I would have had with a 70% mash efficiency.

Lessons learned:

- Stir wort before taking preboil gravity
- Buy waterproof thermometer
- Need 50' wort chiller
- Don't brew on empty stomach, low blood sugar affects brain function
- Make checklist to follow while brewing, I.E. don't forget to aerate.
- Make a yeast starter

Who knows, it will probably turn out to be the best beer I've made yet.

New Brew Kettle

2010-02-21T11:21:00.003-05:00

I've been wanting to get my brewing out of the kitchen. Beth, my wife, isn't as enthusiastic as I am with the beer brewing, and it fills the house with the wonderful aromas of malt and hops. After many hours looking up info on the web, I decided on the electric keg kettle as the brewpot I will be making/using.

I scored the 15.5 gal sanke keg from my uncle. He found it abandoned. It wasn't the most desirable keg, since it has a rubber coating on the top and bottom. It wouldn't have worked at all for a propane heated pot, but I think that it will be ok for electric. This was the only straight sided keg that found.

Here is how it went. I took the keg down to my uncle's shop and had my cousin Larry help me:

1. Cutting the top. This proved to be the most difficult. I wanted an approximately 12" opening in the top. We started by removing the top layer of rubber. Scoring it with an utility knife, and prying it off with a large screw driver. Then we drilled a starting hole and used a reciprocating saw to do the cutting. It was not going very fast. Actually it wasn't going at all. We discovered that there was a layer of metal, then a 1/4 inch layer of rubber, and then the keg wall. I gave the OK to use the plasma cutter, we filled the keg with water to prevent the slag from messing up the inside, and less than 15 minutes later we had a ragged smoking flaming hole in the top of the keg. The rubber was burning and it was really awful smelling.

2. Cleaning up the top. This took a lot of time. Larry, finally got it so it wasn't like a razor blade all the way around the top. The OCD in me wishes that it was more perfect. It is 11.5" in diameter and has a 1/2' rim so if anything was to spill or condense it will not run in the pot, it will run off. Since this keg was rubber coated, it realy complicated this process, as we had to fiddle with the rubber.

3. Prepping the couplings. I decided to put three couplings in the keg. One 1" for the 4500 watt electric water heater element. I chose a RIPP style element, and this made the process more difficult. The 1" coupling had to be cut shorter because it would not slide around the curves of the element. We cut about a 3/4 inch piece off with a bandsaw and faced it with the lathe. Next was a 1/2 inch coupling for the drain. And last, a 1/4 inch coupling for a thermocouple. These didn't require any modification.

4. Drilling the holes. We drilled the keg with a slightly smaller bit than the actual coupling. We didn't want to make the hole to large, as I wanted a really nice weld job. The element hole and the drain hole we enlarged with a reamer in a die grinder, and then pulled the coupling through from the inside. This yielded a thight fit, but the last coupling turned out perfect. For the 1/4 inch coupling we drilled a 5/8 inch hole for the coupling that measured 3/4 inch. We didn't enlarge the hole, and pulled it through. It was hard to pull through, but it was perfect.

5. Welding. We chose TIG welding as the means of welding the couplings in the wall. Larry did this while I wasn't there, and did a nice job. He said that he burnt through a couple of times, and had to use filler in those places. We didn't have the necessary equipment to back gas, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I told him that I didn't want chunky bumpy yucky weld on the inside. This is bad because it can harbor bacterial and is impossible to keep sanitary. I was impressed with what he did, the only less than perfect spot is where he tried to TIG it on the inside around the element coupling. He did all the welding on the out side, and it looks good to me.

6. Leak test. We cleaned up the threads with a thread tap, and screwed in the element, valve, and a plug in the thermocouple coupling. We filled it with water and it didn't leak a drop. We drained ti through the drain, and I'm glad I used a 1/2 in valve, as a 3/8 inch valve would take forever!

Lessons learned:

1. Don't try to use a rubber coated keg, it isn't worth it. We would have been done in less than half the time and had a much better looking finished product if we had used a all stainless keg.

2. Use a straight folded water heater element. We could have left the 1 inch coupling full length. (and saved even more time)

3. Leave the holes 1/16 inch smaller than the object you are putting in, and pull it through with a bolt, nut, sleeve arrangement.

When all was said and done, I had a 15.5 electric brew kettle for only the cost of:

$ 0.00 - Keg
$10.00 - Stainless Steel Couplings
$ 3.00 - 1/2" Brass ball valve and coupling
$24.99 - 4500 watt RIPP water heater element

and the welding and machine work cost me our old coffee maker.

There will be more costs for the electrical stuff needed to drive the element. I have a few things on order, and will do another post when they get here and I get that part finished. I also am going to make a dip tube for the drain so it will empty the kettle.

Fixed Screen Resolution on Ubuntu 9.10

2010-02-21T09:49:00.003-05:00

I restarted my ubuntu machine today and was presented with a glorious 800x600 screen resolution. After a few minutes of looking for the xorg.conf file and not finding it, I found this which got things working again:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8595940

Now if it were this easy to fix the mac keyboard that the cats spilled water on...

Countdown to the big day!

2009-09-13T19:43:00.003-04:00

Things are really gearing up here on the home front. My wife, Beth is due Sept 23rd, so we are in full swing of trying to get the last things done.

Tonight we met with our doula, Laurie Flower, for the second and final prenatal visit. I'm very excited!! Beth and I are sooo happy that we decided to go with a doula. I don't know if it is a first-time parent thing, but she brings us so much comfort. (and we haven't even got to the labor and delivery yet!)

Even though we went through child birth classes, our doula has helped guide us through our expectations, and the reality of childbirth. She is such an encourager!

So as the excitement builds, I hope to get the time to post things to the site!

I'm starting to wonder how these spoiled guys will take the arrival!

Here come the kittehs . . .

2009-08-04T22:57:00.004-04:00

Meet Nemo and Sheldon:

Nemo
Platinum Mink Tonkinese

Named for Marlin's son in the movie Finding Nemo. Nemo is curious, affectionate, and wants to be center of attention at all times.

Sheldon
Champagne Mink Tonkinese

Another character from the movie Finding Nemo. Also, named for a character from The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon is the prettier, smarter, cooler of the two. However, he isn't as affectionate, and likes to spend time by himself. (Ironically just like the Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.)

fun with cars @ night

2009-07-02T23:13:00.003-04:00

My first attempt at long exposure photography. I am really liking the Canon XSi!

Lookin' for a camera

2009-06-14T22:05:00.002-04:00

With the little one on the way, I have declared the need for a new digital camera.

For the past 5 years, I have had my mind made up that my next camera would be a Digital SLR.

In the process of researching camera bodies and lenses, I discovered a few good articles:

Why a SLR? Why not a point and shoot? Answer: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/recommended-cameras.htm

Also, here is an article that spells it out even more: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/2dig.htm

Seedling Self Watering Rig

2009-04-26T21:37:00.007-04:00

I just got back home from a weekend trip to Washington, DC. Before I left, I had been pondering how I would keep the tomato, pepper, and herb seedlings alive while I was gone.

Enter: Marlin's SSWR

One Aluminum Roasting pan

Put a piece of Styrofoam approx 1 inch thick in the bottom.

Drape a layer of paper towels (I used 2 layers of blue paper shop towels) over the Syrofoam block. Pour water in pan.

Styrofoam will float, and paper towel will wick water to plants.

Next year I will use this method from the get-go!

Here is a comparison of two pepper plants. One wasn't in the SSWR, another that was:

Cool book scanner . . .

2009-04-21T20:25:00.000-04:00

DIY High-Speed Book Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras - More DIY How To Projects

My Most Private Personal Post:

2009-04-01T20:12:00.007-04:00

Here it is. This was a long time coming,

I installed a new toilet at home.

We have been having issues with our toilet plugging. Ok, I will confess, I was the one that was causing this problem.

I did some looking on the internet several months ago, and decided that I wanted to get the Toto Aquia II. Review / Manufacturer's Product Page

I wanted a VERY powerful flush. I also was intrigued by the water saving abilities of the powerful 0.9 Gallon flush (for urine and easy flushing solids) and then the super-powerful 1.6 Gallon flush.

I am very pleased with the flush, and feel that I can throw the plunger away!

Here are a few pics of the toilet installed:

Here is the button actuated flush:

And here it is with the lid open, so you can see the waterspot, which is pretty small.

Clean is happy! I bought the soft close seat, so that there won't be any seat slamming. I got a giggle when I noticed the ad that was on the bottom of the lid. If I had a large supply of money, I would definitely have one of these.

Seed Starting Heater

2009-04-01T17:49:00.002-04:00

I recently received some tomato seeds and wanted to get them started ASAP!

The ambient temperature was a little low, and I really didn't want to spend the $30 for a heat mat for seed starting.

So I look around on the 'net, and find a few posts mentioning that Christmas lights can be used.

Enter: Marlin's attempt to start seeds and burn the house down.

Round One, The container sitting on the lights constantly on: The seeds/container was maintaining 100 Degrees F! WAAAAY too hot!

Round Two:

Being the HVAC helper that I am, I cobbled together a quick controls project:

Items Needed:

1 - 3D Christmas star
1 - Penn Johnson Controls A419 (which I already had on hand, These things run $60 - $100)
1 - 6 foot Extension cord
Piece of aluminum foil

I cut the extension cord, and hooked it up to the temperature control.
Next, I took the star and wrapped it in aluminum foil. Mainly that was to keep the light contained, so it wouldn't drive me crazy.

Then all I had to do was plug it in and set the temps!

Here it is working maintaining a comfy 77 degrees:

Herb Planter: Mint

2009-03-31T23:07:00.001-04:00

Quickly put together a 4 foot by 1 foot planter for mint to take over. From what I understand, mint won't grow true from seed. Instead of forking over $3.50 from Lowes or Home depot, I wasin search of some growing that I could get a start.

And, One of the plants that I got from my Grandma and Grandpa Glick:

First Potato Bin Planted

2009-03-31T23:04:00.000-04:00

Took a few minutes and popped a few potatoes in the ground. The variety: All Blue

Potato Bins

2009-03-30T10:10:00.004-04:00

Sunday afternoon the weather was gorgeous, and I tackled potato frame construction.

Several weeks ago I stumbled across an intruging method of growing potatoes, at Sinfonian's Square Foot Garden Site.

I took the principle and made slight changes. My boxes measure 30.5" square on the inside. I also opted out of the four corner posts (for aesthetic reasons), deciding to do something like tabs on the outside. This morning when I took the picture I realized that they will have more morning shade than I expected, whoops. We will see how it goes.

I ordered seed potatoes from Ronniger's Potato Farm on 3/12/2009, and after nearly a week without any notification of order received or shipped, I decided to order from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds on 3/18/2009. On 3/21/2009 I received an order from ronnigers, but it wasn't mine! Finally on 3/26/2009 I receive the proper order. Still no package from Irish Eyes!

Also on 3/18/2009 I ordered some tomato seed from Tomato Growers Supply, and as of today, 3/30/2008 haven't received them either. I guess this is their busy season, and I need to be patient.

Fast shipping places like Amazon.com sure have spoiled me!

Here is another image of my seedlings:

I potted the 2 larger tomatoes, they are the Big Beef variety. The smaller ones on the left are a heirloom, Brandywine.

Midways back on the left are four bell peppers, they are getting their first true leaves. Then way in the back is some leaf lettuce.

I am itching for 4/15/2009 when these things can get out in the ground (oh no! not tax day)!!

MSi Wind and confusion

2009-03-28T19:41:00.004-04:00

It is so fun to have a netbook!

Today at an event while I was using my MSi Wind running OSX, I was approached by a lady that was frowning and looked very confused.

She asked, "Where did you get that TINY laptop?" I replied, "from Amazon.com."

Still VERY confused looking, she explained that she was a mac user, and had never seen a mac like that - and was demanding to know where to get one for herself.

LOL, I sure hope Apple gets on the ball and gets one out the gate soon!

I really love Macs . . .

2009-03-28T19:16:00.005-04:00

Today, my wife was involved in putting on a brunch celebrating her hostesses from our jewelry business with eight other jewelers. Not suprisingly, friday evening at 9:45 pm I find myself with the responsibility of working the sound and music. Why is it that nearly every place that these things are put on have a really crappy pa system with the mixer in the FRONT of the room?

Immediately I decide if I am going to do this, I'm gonna do it MY way.

It involved a Mac Mini, a netbook, screensharing, and a wifi router.

I placed the Mac Mini up front running headless, With a 1/8" to rca adapter plugged into the Radioshack PA Amp.

I used the wifi router (running dd-wrt) to provide a wireless connection since my Mini doesn't have an airport card.

I used my MSi Wind Netbook at the back running screen sharing to the headless Mini.

I created a playlist containing the music I wanted in itunes on the wind, and shared it. Then simply played the shared itunes library on the mini in a repeating shuffle. A cool thing is as I added music to the playlist on the wind, it automagically played it on the Mini.

Here's the cool part. This took me less than 45 minutes to get working. From the very first thought if the idea, to a working operation. Try that with a PC!

The Mac Mini and Router:

The MSi Wind:

Screen Sharing:

My tool splurge

2009-03-26T19:13:00.004-04:00

With the gardening projects in the works, and the impending basement finishing I had the need ;) for a circular saw and a reciprocating saw.

A quick stop at Home Depot, and I netted a deal. Looks like the Ryobi P841 18 volt, 4 tool combo kit is being clearanced out.

It consists of:

1 Two speed cordless drill
1 Easy blade change Reciprocating Saw
1 5.5" Circular Saw
1 Flashlight
2 Batteries (1.8 Ah NICD)
1 One Hour Battery Charger
1 Carrying Bag

All for the hefty price of: $129

Here's the deal. These older NICD tools are being phased out for the newer Lithium-Ion tools. But guess what! This Ryobi set is compatible with the new batteries. That means after these batteries die, I can replace them with the lithium ion batteries and be way ahead of the game. Considering the comparable lithium powered set to the P841 costs $299!

For work I really like the Dewalt cordless tools. However, a similar toolset that is NICD powered would have cost at least $499. Granted, the tools would have been much higher quality. For my personal home use these ryobi tools will do just fine.

I actually know several contractors that use ryobi cordless tools on the jobsite!

Can truthiness hurt?

2009-03-26T09:13:00.009-04:00

Truthiness can get ya! Want to see how?

In this case the truthiness is coming from the press!! Of all places?!?!

First, what is the definition of truthiness in this context? Answer: to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts

For me, it isn't everyday that you get to meet someone who has a high profile job. I recently learned of his story, and it is sobering, and sad. It is surprising how only an accusation that goes unchallenged in the courtroom can snowball to such a major life altering event. How one man is trying to get the truth out when no one really wants to listen. Isn't it funny how the press and public so easily has its mind made up?

Dr. Saami Shaibani

The accusation: http://www.courttv.com/trials/novelist/092603_ctv.html

The truth: http://www.templetruth.com/

.

Here come the onions! - Garden 2009

2009-03-22T18:09:00.005-04:00

Hope your not getting tired of my endless posts on gardening. Its just the beginning!

I am hoping that if I publish as much as possible about this gardening experiment, maybe I will actually follow through and get some decent results.

Saturday I picked up some Onion plants from my Grandpa Schrock, and My uncle Mark. This really got me motivated to get a raised bed setup. If you have been following along, you know that I am using the square foot gardening book as my guide. I made an attempt of Mel's Mix. I probably screwed up the ratios and I used perlite instead of the elusive vermiculite.

Enough! On to the pictures!!

The new 4 foot x 4 foot raised bed.

Six squares of onions.

Four sweet pepper and two not so good looking big beef tomato seedlings.

Managing My Digital Life

2009-03-20T18:04:00.001-04:00

Found a new site that hits on a major problem in our world today.

Many people have lots of digital content, but they have no clue what to do with it or how to take proper care of it!

Check it out at:

http://mydl.me/

I would even go as far as saying: subscribe to the rss feed!

And if you don't know what a rss feed is, click here.

Garden 2009: Earthtainer Construction

2009-03-19T21:10:00.001-04:00

I picked up a few items and have constructed three earthtainers. Two that have mounts for tomato cages, and one without. Pictured below is the one without the mounts.

I plan on using it for veggies such as, Sweet Corn, Peppers, Green Beans, Cucumbers, and Squash.

This will eventually be filled with a soilless potting mix. Here you can see the false bottom that separates the water from the potting mix. Also, in the center you can see the wicking basket.

You can find more about earthtainers here

And here are pictures of what earthtainers are capable of.

On the plant front, I have several Big Beef tomato and California Wonder Bell Pepper plants sprouted down in the basement under light.

Garden 2009, The beginning . . .

2009-03-15T19:32:00.001-04:00

Yeah, you read it right, a garden.

I am not looking to do an average garden. I'm looking for a lazy man's garden. Maximum reward for minimum effort.

I'm looking to provide a healthy better tasting alternative to the supermarket produce that we currently eat. Hey, the way I figure it, if we have a steady supply of fresh veggies, we will end up eating better.

Last week, I discovered the Earthbox. It looked pretty cool. Then I found the Earthtainer. As a guy who like little projects, the earthtainer looked to be the ticket!

1. I would be able to place the garden in a ideal location, as most of the open ground around the house is shaded by trees.
2. Selfwatering! There is a fairly large water reservoir that would allow weekly waterings from me but constant perfect watering to the plant.
3. No weeds. You use 100% sterile potting mix no weed seeds.

Last friday I picked up a copy of All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Now I am sort of undecided.

1. Earthtainers will be more expensive.
2. SF gardening will be more work.

I am still deciding on which path to take.

Meanwhile, The tomato and pepper seeds are planted. Right now there are sitting comfy on top of the refrigerator:

I started them March 11, 2009

Hopefully they will emerge in the next 5 days!

And then they will be moved down to the cooler basement under the new lights!

Everybody needs to see this video!

2009-02-22T14:40:00.003-05:00

I found this video on the internet that explains ALOT about how the credit crisis occurred.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

My productive evening.

2009-02-20T00:18:00.001-05:00

A guy I knew called and said he had a new computer to setup and wanted me to help him with it. He lives in the boonies. No DSL or Cable. Only Dialup. Ugh! DIALUP.

I asked him why he bought a new computer, he said because he was trying to do his taxes and turbotax said he needed to upgrade his windows to some SP thing. He said that he first went to radioshack and asked about the SP thing and they said he needed to buy a ~$300 update. (I assume vista??) He left Radioshack and bought a new $1200 computer.

He was due a new computer. Believe me!

So here is where things go frustratingly bad.

I drive 45 mintues to his house to find out that the reason he can't get the internet working is because he has the phoneline plugged into the ethernet port. Yep, you guessed it no modem. I decided that we needed an usb model, easier to install and easier to switch to a new computer in the future.

7:00 PM Off to walmart. They had cable and dsl modems, and one lonely internal pci modem that didn't mention vista.

7:45 PM Radioshack. (his choice) only PCI internal modem so we left.

7:55 PM Bestbuy. finally found the spot for modems. They had one internal and one usb external model to choose from but no usb in stock.

8:15 PM Staples. They had several choices for modems. Three internal modems, All PCI and two! external models, One USB and one SERIAL!! Guess what? USB sold out.

8:35 PM Officemax. Two internal supramax modems pci. At this time I said screw it we will just get an internal modem!!!! No mention of vista on the boxes or the website, so we left empty handed.

8:45 PM A different Walmart. No modems of any kind.

8:55 PM back to Bestbuy! Grabbed the PCI modem, checked and made sure it worked with vista, and indeed it does.

9:40 PM back to his house. opened the cover to find, you guessed it. the only slots on the motherboard are 3 PCI Express x1 slots.

10:15 PM Ordered USB modem from amazon, select 2-day shipping.

10:45 Head home, defeated until the modem arrives.

The Top Five Reasons I Jailbroke . . .

2009-01-14T22:57:00.000-05:00

1. QuickGold
2. Fixing mobile safari's cookie amnesia
3. QuickGold
4. QuickGold
5. QuickGold

Politics . . .

2008-10-23T10:01:00.001-04:00

Here it is. Virginia is being called a battleground state this go around, so there are more nonsense ads, and news stories than usual. Virginia predominately has voted republican for as long as I can remember, but several polls show Obama with a chance of grabbing the state.

Using my technologically advanced scientific polling method (tracking the yard litter trend), I have deduced that there are far more Obama signs out this year compared to John Kerry in the last presidential election. Lynchburg is a "church town", and there is no surprise that you can tell the housing developments that have the moral conservative value voters. Usually they have four to six McCain signs in their yard. But seriously I do see more Obama signs here.

Anyhow, one of the houses that we passed had a different sign up. It said, Vote For Chuck Baldwin. I check it out and he is running for the Constitution party.

Here is a small snippet of an article on his site that is of interest to me. I must state for the record, that I in no way supporting or endorsing him, but I think that more voters should pay attention to the point of the article.

From www.baldwin08.com, "A Wasted Vote":

"When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so.

In the first place, a wasted vote is a vote for someone you know does not represent your own beliefs and principles. A wasted vote is a vote for someone you know will not lead the country in the way it should go. A wasted vote is a vote for the "lesser of two evils." Or, in the case of John McCain and Barack Obama, what we have is a choice between the "evil of two lessers."

Albert Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. For years now, Republicans and Democrats have been leading the country in the same basic direction: toward bigger and bigger government; more and more socialism, globalism, corporatism, and foreign interventionism; and the dismantling of constitutional liberties. Yet, voters continue to think that they are voting for "change" when they vote for a Republican or Democrat. This is truly insane! . . ."

Brain Toniq . . .

2008-10-21T19:28:00.001-04:00

I just pulled the trigger on an order for Brain Toniq. I heard about it on Macbreak Weekly and Geekbrief TV.

I am not one to spend countless dollars on energy drinks or "vitamin" water. (I'm a coffee guy) However, I found a coupon code, and decided to get some purely for novelty value.

For the record:
1. I think that it is an extravagant wasteful purchase for my household income.
2. I am skeptical of its "smartening" effect

Check out the "brain toniq" song!

And if you are looking for something educational in this post: 10 things the food industry doesn't want you to know

We will see how it works when it gets here . . .

More ISS Images

2008-10-18T11:09:00.001-04:00

Here are a few more images:

First Image:
Oct 17 2008 - 2031UTC - ISS was over Southern Indiania/ Northern Kentucky

Second Image:
Oct 18 2008 - 12:58UTC - ISS near Lerona, West Virginia, Elev. 64 degrees

Third Image:
Oct 18 2008 - 13:02 UTC - ISS over New Brunswick Canada, Elev. 5 degrees, it was getting a little scratchy.

Fourth Image:
Oct 18 2008 - 14:32 UTC - ISS over Iowa, Elev. 7.2 degrees, nothing but static. need to mount antenna higher.

Fifth Image:
Oct 18 2008 - 14:36 UTC - ISS over Quebec, Canada, Elev. 7.5 degrees. Who turned the camera off??

More to come . . .

Received Image From ISS

2008-10-16T18:27:00.002-04:00

Last night I got a few odds and ends together and set everything up to receive slow scan television (SSTV) from the International Space Station (ISS).

SSTV is a fancy way of saying sending images via radio. Richard Garriott, A visitor to the space station brought and setup the sstv equipment. every five minutes it sends an image down.

I wasn't sure if the low tech antenna setup that I made would actually perform well enough to receive an adiquate signal to decode a decent image.

On this mornings pass I received these two images:

The first, was while the ISS was nearly directly over virginia, and was only approx 250 miles away.

The second image was when the ISS was nearly setting to our north, so it was somewhere over the New England states. Things were getting pretty scratchy, I am rather surprised that the image was even recognizable.

This was super cool!

de KI4AOA 73's

Regular and high quality youtube video compared

2008-10-03T09:08:00.002-04:00

I just notinced that the link to the high quality video didn't publish on the last blog post, so what follows are the same video on in high quality, and one in regular quality.

Regular

High Quality

Youtube view in high quality option

2008-09-23T16:13:00.001-04:00

I have put most of the video that I have recently recorded up on youtube for the world to see. If you read back in the past posts you will see some of my ranting about the poor quality of youtube video.

There has been some changes since then. Youtube has increased the upload file size to one gigabyte, but kept the video length at 10 min. I sure would like to see longer videos! However, the one Gb limit has allowed uploading dv files straight from my computer. No rendering and rerendering. Full (highest quality that I have) into the youtube video distortion device. One side affect that I noticed that none of my videos that I uploaded in this manner have the view in high quality option. Not even after a month. Oh well, I guess I'll go back the render and rerender method!
Heres one of the "rerendered" videos. You will have to follow the link to see the high quality option.

My take on: Google Chrome

2008-09-03T09:01:00.005-04:00

After several friends asking me about the new Google Chrome browser, I decided to give it a test spin.

My Thoughts:

1. Was dissapointed that it was only for xp/vista. Crap, I have to go startup the ole' gateway lappy. Vista, ugh! . . .

2. After 15 - 20 minutes of disk thrashing, I had the new browser installed. (Note: this is not chrome's fault, but an overwhelmed underperforming cheapo laptop running a bloated OS)

3. The Browser: I like it. It is very simple, clean, and smooth. Excellent screen utilization. It didn't take very long for me to "acclimate" to it. Strangely, some of my friends & family have had trouble with tabs in firefox, and chrome's implementation should make tabbed browsing more intuitive for them. It feels like tabs weren't a oops we need to add this to our browser thing.

4. I will undoubtedly be back in firefox, my preferred browser. I am addicted to the add-ons and extensions that it has. Not to mention that there is no MAC version of Chrome!

Google listen up! I need add-ons. Come to think of it, the add-ons are the reason I don't use Safari or Internet Explorer. The biggies for me are: AdBlock Plus & Foxmarks

My take on the Apple App Store and its Apps

2008-08-11T16:01:00.001-04:00

Ok, Let my rant begin:

Apple & Developers:

We do not need more tip calculators.
We do not need more sudoku games.
We could use a few more unit conversion apps.

I don't know any other way to say it:

The app store is great, but I hope that apple has a plan to start removing some of the underperforming apps. It is beginning to be a pain to deal with the overwhelming quantity of apps to find the one that you want.

I use the rss feed from pinch media to keep track of what new apps have been released. If I find one that perks my interest, I then fire up the iPhone app store and tap search and enter the title of the app.

Also, when you have a lot of apps installed on the device it can be a tad overwhelming flicking through many pages of apps to find the one that you want to launch. I find the desire to have more than 4 apps in the dock.

I hope that the future holds some improvement in these areas . . .

Quiet evening at home ...

2008-08-06T20:46:00.001-04:00

My darling wife, Beth is having dinner out with a girlfriend of hers
tonight. This leaves me unattended at home. Alone.

I decide to grill a steak for dinner. I get the grill going and find
myself in the middle of a wasp swarm.

I finish dinner, and the Internet goes down.

I call comcast and they say there is an outage. No DUH.

I decide to blog about my happy evening. Down to the only device that
can connect to the outside world, my iPhone, I fire up safari and get
nearly done typing my post, and it decides to kick me back to the home
screen loosing all my text.

It has to be me!

Posting this via email as it is what I am down to.

I think I'll head to bed, but I am worried the ceiling fan might fall
on me ...

Sent from my iPhone 3G

Mobile Phone Signal And Battery Meters Explained . . .

2008-08-03T00:25:00.001-04:00

Why does the first bar of the battery life take 36 hours to go away,
and the other 3 seem to vanish in 10 minutes? How do my calls get
dropped when I CLEARLY have full bars? Read on m'friend.

Click here to read more . . .

Via huddler.com

iPhone 3G now protected!

2008-07-29T16:50:00.000-04:00

I'm the guy who shows up with his fancy gadgets all piled in an old plastic Wal-Mart grocery bag. No fancy cases. No organization. I try! I really do!! The longest that I can say that I have kept order and organization is about 24 hours. If you don't believe me, look at the interior of my car.

Recently both I and my wife have purchased the iPhone 3G. Most things that I have, I consider tools. I use them, I don't baby them. If I can't use it for fear of messing it up, then why did I even get it? I don't purchase things not to use them.

But, the iPhone is sooo purdy . . .

I immediately started searching for ways to protect my new phone with out dorking the it's sleek lines and delightful styling. I finally found what I was looking for:

Best Skins Ever

I think I will put one of these on everything!

Let me tell you! I am all thumbs when it comes to installing decals and stickers. I did have a time getting it applied. As usual I learned a few things after . . .

Manditory reading:

I didn't use windex as suggested by the following links, but there is lots of good info

Part one - How To
Part two - How To

Most folks won't notice the skin. It doesn't feel quite as nice as it did before. I now have peace that I won't scuff it to badly when I drop it in a parking lot, or our driveway.

Beth, my darling wife, is confused as to how the clear film will provide any real drop protection. She currently carries her phone "naked". Heh, heh, heh! Sorry!! was distracted for a second, she just walked in the room. . .

Everybody Pay Attention. You need to do the following:

2008-07-29T11:13:00.001-04:00

This should not be a surprise. However I have yet to see anyone be prepared. In day-to-day life I see family after family who have lost most of what they had in a house fire. Not once have I seen a well documented list of things that they owned.

Take a few minutes and follow through with the following:

Know Your Stuff Inventories Your Home [Featured Download]: "

Windows and Mac OS X: Offered as a free download from the Insurance Information Institute, the Know Your Stuff Home Inventory software is a full-featured tool for cataloging your possessions in case disaster should strike. Wizards guide you through the basic setup of your inventory, then using Know Your Stuff's simple interface you can add rooms and items to the inventory. For each item you enter you can assign photos, receipts or appraisals, make/model/serial number, quantity, and replacement cost.

There are guides to help you get started on the Know Your Stuff web site, very helpful if you've never done a home inventory before and aren't sure where to start or what to include in it. Obviously if you invest the time and energy to create a home inventory you'll want to make sure the it's is secure. From the Know Your Stuff application you can export the file you've created and save it to external media or to a remote location, upload the file to Vault 24 (a remote backup solution integrated into the software, which unfortunately costs $15 a year) , or you can go the old fashioned route and print the inventory off and store it in a safe location. The Know Your Stuff Home Inventory software is a free download for Windows or Mac.

(Via Lifehacker.)

Well, it is official!

2008-07-13T13:58:00.000-04:00

I have an iPhone 3G in hand!

Here is how it went down:

7/10/2008
9:00 PM: Arrived home from work. Was exhausted from long day. Fixed myself dinner.

10:30 PM: Headed off to bed. Tossed and turned.

11:00 PM: Beth (my wife) made it home from her jewelry party.

7/11/2008
2:30 AM: alarm wakes me.

3:00 AM: Enroute to ATT Store

3:15 AM: Arrival at ATT Store. There was a group of approx 8 people there (some were just haging with friends). We added our names to the official unofficial list. We were number 7 & 8. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, as I had never done anything like this before.

4:00 AM: We decided to watch “Meet the Robinsons” on a mac book pro. I provided AC power with my inverter and Wifi intenet to others in line through my WinMo phone.
6:00 AM: One by one, other people started showing up. Total line count was approx 22.

6:30 AM: Store manager arrives.

7:00 AM: Store manager asks us to form an “official” single file line. There are approx 35 people in line. He also starts taking info on his clipboard, I.E. your name, which phone model, what plan, etc. It is at this point the realization hits that there might not be enough phones to supply demand. There was at least one person from the back of the line who was offering cash to switch places so he could get one of the 16 gb models. Rumors had circulated all morning that they only had 20 iPhones, but ATT would not give out any info.

7:50 AM: They start letting groups of 4 into the store.

8:10 AM: It is our turn!! We have a few moments to handle the display models while waiting on the next available rep.

8:40 AM: We both walk out of the ATT store, Beth with a 16G White, and I with a 16G Black iPhone!! The line had grown tremendously! It was huge!!. We had got 2 of the 4 remaining 16G models. Onve inside the store we learned that they received ten 16G models, and ten 8G models.

All in all, it was a good experience. Our phones activated fine, I guess it was before the activation system failures of the day. I am sure the Apple store experience was better. I think it was a bad move on Att’s part to withhold the number of the units at the store from the poor people waiting in line, just so they could get orders for direct shipment of the phone later to the customers. I think some people figured it out on their own and left the line at drive to the nearest apple store 2.5 hours away.

Oh, and BTW! I LOVE my iPhone 3g.

Please don’t hate me. Remember, it is only a phone.

Comcast Doubles Upload Speed !

2008-07-02T09:57:00.000-04:00

At least here in Central Virginia . . .

Just checked and now I am getting right at the 2 mbit upload rate! The upload rate was the biggest reason that I originally upgraded to the higher speed service. I was on the 6 mbit / 384 k and upgraded to the 8 mbit / 768 k service. This makes it cost effective to drop back to the new 6 mit / 1 mbit service.

However the speedtest.net test I just did reports lower download rates!?!

As much money as I am sendng comcast, I should have 16 mbit / 2 mbit service!

This got me thinking about what my usage levels are, here is a table showing my bandwith totals for the past several months:

Note: July and March are partial months.

BE CONTENT?? Are you kidding?

2008-07-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

I have really wrecked my future. When I was a kid, while I was spoiled, I didn’t get EVERYTHING I wanted. I would drool over Estes rockets in their catalog. I would spend hours looking at the Sears catalog. We didn’t have a computer, and this was before the phenomenon called the world wide web hit. Like a typical nerd kid, my mind was stuck on rockets, airplanes, telescopes, radios, helicopters, etc. I would dream of robots that would do everyday tasks. Problem was I didn’t have any money.
In my teenage years, I worked for my uncle at his slaughter house. I had a source of MONEY! My parents didn’t instill the necessity to save money, and I bought stuff. Now, I must say, that I am not placing any blame on my parents. It was my choice. They didn’t encourage the habit. Looking back, they didn’t approve, and I didn’t listen to their guidance.
Quite quickly I had collected quite the collection of Legos, and various toys. The age of the internet did not help matters. It opened my mind too many possibilities. I progressed to higher paying jobs, and with the increase of pay came the increase of stuff.
The years from age 18 to 25 brought nearly every childhood dream / desire to reality.
Radio Controlled Airplanes, Helicopters, Cars / Trucks. Ham radios. Metal detectors. High Powered Rockets. Computers. Laptops. High speed internet. Cell phones. PDA cell phones. Telescopes. Digital cameras. Video cameras. The list could go on and on.
I must admit a few things. I didn’t get hooked on credit. If I didn’t have the money, I didn’t buy the item. Thank goodness for that! Also I am happy of the fact that the money that I spend at least went into tangible things, and not wholly into services. At least I have something to show for my horrible habits – even today!! Many items have since found their way through Ebay, on to others.
While the past 10 years have yielded lots of stuff, I have emerged without debt! This I am very thankful for! Unfortunately I also didn’t have and real savings either.

Thanks to the recent Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course that my wife signed “us” (i.e. ME) up for, it has helped break the bad habits and help remove the hand from my face so I can see further into my future.

It has helped me understand where our money is going, and now for the first time in my life I have a sense of financial control. To some, Dave Ramsey may be an extremist out of touch with the “real” world. But the things that I have learned in his course have broken the chains in my life holding me back from a decent future.
The lifestyle that I was living was not indefinitely sustainable.
Now that the blinders are off, I can see the horrible disease called discontentment. I see it in others lives everyday. It is disgusting. I understand that true needs do exist. However, once a person grasps that “things” will NEVER bring contentment, your view of life will change – For the better!

If there is one thing that I would want you to take from this rant it is this:
“If I could only get that software, or that computer, or that iPhone . . . Everything will be fixed. . . I will have arrived”
It is a lie!! Don’t let it run your life!!

Come on over! It’s nice over here!!

Deep into the iPhone decision 2008:

2008-06-29T11:48:00.000-04:00

When the first iPhone was released a year ago, it was before my conversion (My mac conversion). I was content with my windows pc's. I overlooked their quirks and issues. As a loyal Windows Mobile pda/phone carrying nerd, I have owned an Audiovox PPC-6700 , and currently a HTC Titan.

A little background:

My computer skills started on an Tandy 1000HD. It had an 8086 processor, a 10 MB hard drive, and was running dos 2.11. This was in the mid 80s. My grandmother had purchased this machine brand new costing over $3000, for the family business. It sat neglected and unused for many years.

Packard Bell 386sx-33. 486dx4-100. Pentium 90. These are the computers that I had access to in the 1990's.

Then came 1999. The first computer that I personally owned, was a dual processor pentium 466 mhz that I built using the Abit bp6 motherboard. Later, I purchased Windows 2000 so I could utilize both processors.

I had not seen an apple computer at any point during this time. When my grandmother bought that Tandy 1000, she had looked at the apple and the Tandy, and if I was told correctly, she chose the Tandy instead of the Apple based on the fact that the Tandy had a hard disk and the Apple didn't. She didn't know ANYTHING about computers. Maybe the psycho Radioshack salesmen were better than the Computerland salesmen. I do know that computerland closed it doors before I was old enough to remember drooling over computers. With that, as far as I know, the only apple outlet near my hometown dissapeared.

Fast forward to 2007.

The first iPhone release. Whoopty-Doo. Look at all the crazy people. They were paying hundreds of dollars for a phone that was VERY limited. Sure, you could resize a photo by pinching. But could you download and install a super cool satellite tracking program, so you could determine when an amateur radio satellite was coming overhead? Could you edit a Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file?
Yet people flocked to the iPhone, even with these deficiencies. Why?
After my vista fiasco, and then the introduction of my Mac Mini, the curtain was lifted.

Sure, you might loose a tiny bit of the functionality you were used to, but you gain so much more.

1. I don't have to "reboot" all the time to "fix" things.
2. Strange cryptic error messages do not popup. (i.e. A Fatal Exception, or Illegal Operation . . .)
3. I don't have and Antivirus/Malware/Spyware program hogging my processor / emptyng my wallet.
4. I don't have to jump through hoops when I "attempt" and new hardware install.

Basically it comes down to this:

Everything a Mac does, it does well. Things are intuitive, not cluttered.

I have been responsible for 4 macs being purchased in the last 6 months by loyal pc users. (maybe I had a little help from Microsoft's Vista, who knows? ;) )
So now we get down to the subject at hand:
I am getting an iPhone based on my experiences with my mac. I don't expect the iPhone to have every feature, capability, or freedom that my current Windows Mobile pda phone has. BUT!! I look forward to having a phone that is more stable, and just plain works.

Would you give up a little to gain stability? What is more important, features or Getting Things Done?

And after you dive in, the water is great. It is nice over here!! Come on over!! I promise you won't miss a thing!! REALLY!

My Father-in-law on TV!

2008-06-19T12:22:00.000-04:00

Here is link to the blog post on my Brother-in-law's blog.

Check it out!

http://www.ear-fung.us/2008/06/dad-on-tv/

coming soon . . . iPhone 3G

2008-06-19T10:49:00.000-04:00

I've been busy and haven't posted the news:

I am going to get an iPhone 3G!

AT&T doesn't have the greatest network in the Lynchburg Virginia area, but I think that the iPhone features will tip the scales. I have been looking to combine cellular service with my wife to save a buck or two, and also since the whole "Mac" conversion, I have been wanting an iPod.

We looked at the cost of the pda/phone devices on sprint, and we were going to have to put out nearly $800 one time and ~$175 a month for 2 pda phones. (one for me and one for my darling wife)

Looks like for less money we will be getting more with the iPhone.

Now only if AT&T had 3G service here . . .

New Tractor Pulling videos on Youtube

2008-06-19T10:43:00.000-04:00

Just dropping a note to say that the latest tractor pulling video from June, 13th at Franklin County Recreation Park have been uploaded to Youtube. I have several videos on youtube. One way of finding them is by going to youtube and searching for CVATPA

Otherwise:

My Indiana Jones Spoon!

2008-05-06T21:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing special, I think every box of mini wheats have one in it.

I felt like a little kid! Silly and sad, I know.

My dad and the tractor pull sled slam!

2008-05-05T19:03:00.000-04:00

I was out of town for the weekend and missed the tractor pull in South Boston, VA.

Today I was informed of some of the events that occurred there!!!

WOW! These guys ARE crazy. Here's a still frame of the video I was sent.

Video courtesy Memory Lane Videos

WRT54G router os

2008-03-13T21:45:00.001-04:00

I am a huge fan of the third-party linux firmware available for the variety of broadcom based routers.

I started originally with the offerings of sveasoft, many years ago, and for the past 2.5 years have fully deployed dd-wrt on the wireless routers that I administer.

Tonight, I have turned a new page, by installing Tomato, on my personal router. I was initially drawn to it for its simple clean light feel. But now I am consumed with its bandwidth monitoring capabilities.

Granted, with the recent crackdowns in my local area by Comcast on "Network Abuse", I think that I might keep an eye out for my usage.

If you have a Tomato supported router, I would suggest looking it over.

I am starting to get it . . .

2008-02-26T11:16:00.000-05:00

I used to think that the "mac enthusiast" was a mac gadget purchasing zombie. No matter what Apple would produce, it was a "required" item.

After using the mac, I am starting to see things from a different perspective.

As a pc user, I have struggled with my Creative Zen micro and windows media player. Or maybe it was just struggles with the windows media player, I don't know.

Now, with just 12 hours of having the mac, I can see clearly now.

Things really do work!, things easily integrate in a way that the windows world could only wish.

I now, NEED and ipod. . .

It was inevitable . . .

2008-02-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

Today I eagerly checked my gmail inbox, and found something that has been along time coming.

My first spam message delivered to the inbox.

I have been and still am very pleased with the spam filters that gmail offers.

Here is the email:

reply-to michealterry2244@yahoo.it,
to undisclosed-recipients,
date Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 5:19 PM
subject CONTACT ME PRIVATE

Goodday,

My name is Mr.Micheal Terry,I work in the Euro Lottery, I am soliciting your
assistance for a swift transfer of 4,528,000 GBP,should you be willing to
assist me in this project you will be giving me just 10% of your winnings.
Just as a brief,due to my position in the company I can make it happen
that you
would be a winner of the above stated amount,naturally every body
would like to
play a lottery if they are assured of winning, I am assuring you today to be a
winner,please do not take for granted this once in a life time opportunity as
we both stand to collectively gain from this at the success of the
transaction.
Should you be willing to assist me in this transaction please do respond to my
secure e-mail:
michealterry2244@yahoo.it

I would be providing you with my private phone number.

Regards,
Mr.Micheal Terry
michealterry2244@yahoo.it

Vista upgrade nightmare Part 2

2008-02-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

So I bought a retail vista home premium upgrade last night. I decided that It would be my final microsoft computer product purchase. From now on, I am putting my foot down! Resist the urge! Avoid the plague! It really is a cancer.

I have always laughted at the apple tv ads about the mac guy and the pc guy. Especially the one about the "upgrade operation". LOL!

I finally get the true understanding of it!

I would agree that a XP to vista upgrade is quite major, and I have done it, and it can be a real pain.

However last night and this morning I have been fighting a unexpected challenge. You would think that going from vista home basic to vista home premium would be a walk in the park. NOT SO MUCH!

It required over 8 gigabytes of disk space to perform this upgrade. and after the upgrade things were left VERY broken. Well, At least it does boot!

I had no sound! Even though there was an audio device listed as working in the device manager, under audio setup it listed "No Audio Devices Installed" WTF?

Not to mention the antivirus snafu. It also left the mcAfee security suite in such disarray that it was constantly hogging 106% of the system resources.

I have spent over 7 hours of my life simply trying to get this "minor" upgrade working.

I am starting to get excited about receiving my newest acquisition, A Mac mini!

Newsflash: First experience with microsoft support

2008-02-21T17:22:00.000-05:00

The final piece has fell into place! I just had my first and last experience with microsoft, one on one.

Tonight I decided to utilize a little dvd that was included with my laptop. It is called:

Windows Upgrade Anytime

I opened the case, and followed the instructions:

1. click on "Windows Upgrade Anytime" on the start menu
2. Follow the online order process
3. Use the disk that I have to upgrade my computer to unlock its true inner power!

Here is a screen shot:

I went through the order process, and was told that the product was backordered!

I then called microsoft tech support.

I was pleasantly told that "Windows Marketplace" was who I needed to talk to and that they could sort out my trouble. Their number is 866-441-1525.

According to Window Marketplace, I bought the upgrade from someone else. Not them! They told me that I needed to call the "Windows Anytime Upgrade Store" at 877-666-2296.

Guess what the WAU Store told me! They told me that I didn't purchase the order from them either. I was getting alittle ticked. The kind lady gave me the phone number to "Microsoft" since I apparently ordered the upgrade from them. Their phone number was: 888-285-6272.

Finally I was getting somewhere, after an hour on the phone! Upon giving my order number, They informed me that it will not show up in their system for 24 hours. I informed the poor fellow that I would like to cancel the order and just go down to the local Bestbuy and purchase a windows vista home premium upgrade. He informed me that he couldn't do anything until it showed up in their system, and that even then they can't cancel orders. I then asked him if I needed to contact my credit card company, and he then told me that he would check further to see what he could do. He finally came back and told me that he could cancel the order tommorrow after the order shows up.

I have now decided: I will never purchase another Microsoft product again. And this is why:

The company is a jerk. They have absolutley no idea of competent practices. I believe they have good support personel that are handicapped by poor business practices and systems. I get the feeling they are using beta versions of their operating systems on their own pcs. Microsoft is disconnected from the real world.

Only after a psychological evaluation from my wife, will I possibly go out in a few minutes to purchase the upgrade at Bestbuy. Then that will be the last Microsoft purchase.

Hello Apple! Here I come!

I Think Vista Killed My Computer . . .

2008-02-20T22:18:00.001-05:00

Howdy!

Tonight I arrive home to a lovely dead pc.

Further checking indicates failed power supply.

Hp has what looks to be a measley 108 watt powersupply jammed up in the tiny slimpc case.

Over a year of running XP and all was well. Three weeks of vista and the powersupply bit the dust. I have noticed much higher cpu usage and nearly constant hard drive access.

During the "good old days" (on xp) I had virtual memory disabled and the 2gb of ram was sufficient to carry the load. Vista proved otherwise.

XP + Wimpy powersupply = Good To Go
Wimpy powersupply + Vista = 3 Weeks Life

Makes you wonder if the bloat is worth the enviromental impact. With carbon impact studies all the rage has anybody done one on XP vs. Vista?

Oh yeah! Any good deals out there for a mac?

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Tivo Billing Headaches . . .

2008-02-07T20:03:00.001-05:00

Since adding the second tivo to my account, I have been enjoying the multitivo discount for the past 2 years. Imagine my "delight" in discovering the fact that I have been billed the full 12.95 instead of the 6.95 it should have been.

I called tech support and was transfered to the accounting department. Kim, politely listened to my complaint, and after doing some checking, responded:

I do not know why it is being billed at 12.95 it should be billed at 6.95. I donot understand why it happened. All that I can do is reauthorize the tivo on your account for 9.95 a month.

Imagine my dismay! I asked if there was someone that she could transfer me to that could "fix" it. And she responded, no. I further explained that I wasn't aware that the multitivo discount had a time limit, and also the fact that I was not notified of the change of the amount billed. I then asked to be transfered to retentions.

She promptly asked me to please hold to see what she could do.

She came back and told me that she escalated it and that I would see it corrected on the next billing cycle.

Tivo . . . Come on! Whats going on?

Aircraft identification according to the airforce

2008-02-01T11:27:00.000-05:00

saturday geocaching afternoon

2007-12-01T19:27:00.000-05:00

Today found my 100th geocache. My sister, Miranda went along with me geocaching today. We found a total of 9 caches.

Here is a horrible video of one of the mills that we visited. My digital camera has the worst video recording capabilities.

workin' off the 9 pieces of pie . . .

2007-11-24T20:55:00.000-05:00

All that food was sure tasty! Don't tell, but I ate a total 0f 9 pieces of pie.

part of blackwater bike way at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

new bike log 11-10-2007

2007-11-17T09:52:00.001-05:00

It has took awhile for me to extract the bike ride from the 3 days of data on my gpsr.

Here ya go folks!

for some reason elevation data is missing ! oh well, somethig to investigate further!

Sat 11-10 Bike Ride Percivals Isle / Blackwater Creek Trail at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS Travel Community

gps bike trail log posted

2007-11-08T20:16:00.000-05:00

well, I have been playing around with gps data logging, and here is my first attempt at logging the blackwater creek trail. This is one section of the trail, that starts on the riverfront downtown lynchburg, and the deadends in madison heights. I hope to gradually log the entire trail system . . . but my body can't handle it all at one time!

Percivals Isle Paved Bike / Walking Trail at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail: GPS, Photos & Geotagging!

2007-09-18T09:09:00.000-04:00

Sir! may I help you??? Yeah! I'm looking for something that you have on aisle x11 . . .

Do plumbers have a sense humor?

nerdy geocaching video

2007-09-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

I just found this on youtube. This is the single-most coolest geocaching video on there! I have been listening to the podcacher podcast for a while. check it out at www.podcacher.com

anyhoo:

vimeo hosted light limited video

2007-08-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

Here is a higher quality video of the light limited turbo class from harrisonburg, va.

I donot know why, but for some reason when they encoded it the last few seconds have a strange noise on the audio.

If you want to download a high quality version to your computer, you can!

Light Limited Turbo - Rockingham Fair from Marlin Schrock and Vimeo.

streaming video headaches

2007-08-21T23:42:00.000-04:00

so, I have been working with the video that I took of the tractor pull saturday, and it is so sickening to see the super sharp dv video diluted down to watercolors on youtube. So this whole evening I have devoted my time to trying different file formats, different video codecs, different bitrates, resolutions . . . and last but not least, different video hosts.

Youtube = poor quality video
metacritic = good quality video, risque recommended videos (think rated r)
vimeo = still testing
revver = promising

So here is the test subject:

8-18-07 weekend

2007-08-21T23:40:00.000-04:00

So, went with my dad to a tractor pull up in harrisonburg, va. saturday.

Had a really good time, it was an Interstate pull, and there was plenty of stuff to see. It was the first pull that I had seen two sleds in operation, (other than antique pulling). And it seemed to help. One thing that really does peeve me off is going to a truck and tractor pull and they have a pull once every 15 minutes! come on people get it together!!!!! The guys running this show had things together better than that, it looks like they were averaging 3 to 4 minutes or so per hook. The weird thing to me was that they waited until the pull was complete on track a and the sled had returned back to the starting line BEFORE the puller even got on the track to hookup to the sled on track 2. Maybe it was an insurance regulation of one puller on the track at a time.

During the event the “Decision Maker” sled broke. You really don’t know what that feels like until you are involved with planning/putting on a tractor pull. They were able to get it going again, however. I have some footage of it happening, and I wonder if it had something to do with how uneven the track was.

Of particular interest was the 7500 lb Light Limited Turbo class, of which a lynchburg area locals tractor was competing. I took my video camera and taped a portion of the event. So what follows is a taste of the action.