whack whack derickc

Ok, big changes going on at home with our Telco options.

 

First and most important - we've picked up and are now testing MagicJack as a potential replacement to our home phone line.

 

It's a very cool and compelling offering - for $40 you get a USB device that allows you to plug in an RJ11 phone (I've plugged in our Panasonic wireless phone) and make phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada.  No monthly bills.  2nd year is $20.

 

As someone who's always looking to cut costs (i.e. cheap) I looked at this and thought wow - we could potentially eliminate a $45 monthly charge (basic service plus a long distance package for the US and Canada).

 

There are some limiations of the system - it has PC and broadband pre-requisites (broadband must be running, PC must be running).  It doesn't offer international calling at this time.  But hey - we have a computer we keep on all the time (for media storage and services).

 

We just received our MagicJack yesterday, and I hooked it up with no problems.  We've made calls - and we're letting our family and friends know our new number to call during our 'test period'.

 

So far so good!

With the family taking a three week driving trip this summer, Dawn and I have talked about upgrading our wheels to something a little more comfortable.

 

So I've traded in "Fronty" our Nissan pick-up, and we just bought this nifty Dodge Ram Conversion Van. Gadget alert - it comes with Nintendo 64 controller plug ins!

 

I rarely do home improvement projects. My wife and I have this understanding - that a little book called the 'yellow pages' is filled with many people more competent and more interested than I at doing work around the house.

 

Well, this month I've been taking the whole month off - and it's given me extra time and energy to do things around the house that I normally wouldn't consider.

 

Project #1 - putting in new tiles in the main bathroom. Dawn and I picked out the tiles and grout - we often like the color blue as a 'feature color' - and it drew our attention this time too.  Here's a pic of the results - my first time putting in a tile floor.

 

Note: the different colors in the blue tiles is due to their reflective properties. It looks better in person.

 

 

Dawn is starting up a new home business based on Avon products.

 

Have a look at her new web site - http://www.Avon-NW.com

 

This site was created with Office Live Basics - a very cool online service.  http://officelive.microsoft.com

 

Ok. It's been almost 24 hours since selecting 'Clear and Delete Everything' on our DirecTV HD Tivo.

 

Guess what it (still) says now? "Clearing and deleting everything. This will take about an hour."

 

Isn't Linux special?

Woohoo - today is one year after my last blog entry - making this one of the busiest blogs in cyberspace.

 

Ok - so here I am at my computer, waiting for our DirecTV HD Tivo. "Clearing and deleting everything. This will take about an hour."

 

You see, lately the Tivo has really been underperforming our expectations - and it had done such a good job of setting our expectations so low to begin with this was quite a feat in itself.

 

It's only taken two weeks of shows pausing, not responding to remote clicks until 5 minutes later, and then not responding to corrective remote clicks for another five minutes for us to concurr as a family that perhaps something isn't going well with the Tivo. I figure this is probably the Linux/Tivo performance equivalent of hard drive fragmentation... and since the (supported) options for improving Tivo performance are limited, I've opted to go for the "Reset and delete everything and start over" option.

 

To ensure we get back into our old viewing habits, I've captured a list of our Season's Passes.  Since I have nothing better to do - and apparently neither do you - here they are for your reading pleasure.

 

Note the top four shows - if you haven't seen any of these I highly recommend you check them out.

 

Eureka	244	SCFI
Weeds	71	SHOH
House	13	SE13
My Name is Earl	5	SE5
The Sopranos	70	HBOH
The Sopranos	502	HBO2
The Office	5	SE5
Extras	70	HBOH
Pokemon Chronicles	296	TOON
Pokemon	297	BOOM
The Simpsons	388	FOX
The Simpsons	13	SE13
South Park	249	COM
Law and Order: Criminal Intent	5	SE5
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	7	SE7
Curb Your Enthusiasm	70	HBOH
Ed, Edd'n Eddy	296	TOON
Futurama	247	TBS
Futurama	296	TOON
Tripping The Rift	244	SCFI
Law and Order	5	SE5
Family Guy	13	SE13
Intervention	265	A&E
Monk	242	USA
American Dad	13	SE13
Entourage	70	HBOH
Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends	296	TOON
The Fairly OddParents	302	NKTN
Pokemon	22	SE22
MythBusters	278	DSC
American Idol	13	SE13
Kappa Mikey	302	NKTN
That's Clever	229	HGTV
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!	71	SHOH
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart	249	COM
Project Runway	273	BRVO
Knitty Gritty	230	DIY
Design Star	229	HGTV
Growing Up Creepie	294	KIDS

 

Whew!  It took us a little longer to ship than we wanted (hitting our quality bar is more important than hitting an exact date), but we finally got the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP v1.0 out the door.  Check it out!

 

http://www.microsoft.com/sharedaccess.

 

The entire Handbook is available online, if you want to read about it first: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=51297.

 

I’ve tried both of these, and I significantly prefer the Philips:

• Philips Streamium SLA5500 Wireless Music Adapter $99 at Fry’s
• Roku SoundBridge M1000 $199 at CompUSA (-$50 mail-in rebate)

Pros/cons:

• Both work with Windows Media Connect (although the Philips manual isn’t very open about this).
• The Philips is wireless only, the Roku is wired or wireless.
• I couldn’t make the Philips work with my DHCP (Microsoft wireless router); had to give it a static address – but then it works great. Doesn’t look like anyone else has this problem on the newsgroups.
• The Roku software reboots itself too much… often when playing Internet Radio.
• The Roku looks nicer, but the Philips isn’t bad looking.
• The Philips has a larger display, although smaller text.
• The Philips remote control is significantly better… faster and has phone-style number keys for WEP, IP Address configuration, and search.
• Only two connectors on the Philips (power and 1/8 stereo); easier to use. The Roku connectors are behind end caps that are a pain to open/close and access for a restart.
• The Philips receives a huge list of Internet Radio stations automatically, already categorized and ready to go. The Roku comes with 20 (some don’t work), which you can change yourself – but you have to find them first, which is very hard and time consuming.

I have the Philips hooked up to a Philips ShoqBox in my bedroom… sweet. 

The time has finally come to share with the world the project I've been working on since last August.

 

Check it out!