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Showing posts from 2007

Windows Live Writer

Well based on the tests you saw earlier, the program I am using is the Windows Live Writer. It is a free download from Microsoft here . It is a very straight-forward text editor with built-in blog uploading. I would call it "syncing" except it can't get my template from blogger, so if there is a way to put the template in manually that would be a welcome addition to the software. But apart from that it seems to be a very robust piece of software. It is easy to insert links, just a couple of clicks, and it references your Internet Explorer link history so you can just start typing and it will auto-fill the rest of the URL for you, which is nice. Another interesting feature is on the right sidebar there is a history of recent posts that were created using live writer. Which when you click on them fetches the information from your blog. This is a nice addition to the application as well. All in all from the limited testing that I have done it seems like a great way

Baby Update

Well, here is the latest with the new addition. This is at 19 weeks, and we will find out on December 12th what the gender is. That is assuming that the baby co-operates. This little thing is a pain for our doctors since it doesn't like the doppler machine. It will hide and keep the doctor from hearing the heartbeat. So they will breakout the ultrasound machine and get us a picture.

16 Weeks

Well 16 weeks in and Precia is still not feeling great. We have a doctors appointment coming up so hopefully they will be able to shed some light on the situation. If all goes well they will send us home and say keep doing what you have been doing. If things are not good they will send us to the hospital to get an IV to get some hydration. I still find it hard to believe that in just 5 short months I am going to be a father. I hope that I will do a good job. Precia tells me I will be great but I think she is required to say that. As Donny Baker would say "State Law or somethin'." I have been trying to get some new pictures loaded but they are not scanning as well as the first, I will keep trying when we get new pictures though you may have to wait until April to see what all the fuss is about.

It is Official

We are having a baby! In an series of events over the past week, Precia and I ended up at the Hosiptal last night so she could get an IV and get re-hydrated. Once that was started they decided that they needed to check on the baby and make sure it was doing ok. So at 10:30pm we had our first ultrasound. It was absolutly amazing to see those images on the screen and to hear our baby's heart beat 165 bpm, right down the middle for normal at this size. We found out that we are almost exactly 9 weeks along, so hopefully only another 3 weeks of this morning sickness stuff and then it will be smooth sailing, until April 22. We were discharged around 11:30 and made the long trip home. Precia is feeling much better today, better than she has felt since the morning sickness started. So now the goal is to stay hydrated and get through the next 3 weeks.

Wii

We found a Nintendo Wii, and since we got it we can't put down the controller. This is one of the most fun systems to play in a very long time. Between the Wii and the 360, I am going to have a very hard time deciding which games to buy!

Absolutely Unbelievable

I read this today and couldn't believe that this would happen. Especially if the church is heading this up, an institution for acceptance and love is bearing down on a local library for summer programs that talk about and teach diversity. Come on now. A South Carolina library system has closed down its summer programs for young adults after receiving threats and allegations that it was trying to promote "witchcraft" and "drug use." The Pickens County Library System’s half-hour summer programs for middle and high school students were supposed to take a light-hearted look at the topics "Secrets and Spies: How to Keep a Secret by Writing in Code or Making Invisible Ink" and "What’s Your Sign?" Another program was to examine astrology, palmistry, and numerology; and others were to feature tarot cards, tie-dying t-shirts, how to make a Zen garden, and yoga. Now the programs are cancelled in the wake of phone and e-mail threats from the community

Windows Home Server Pt2

This is a play by play of the installation so be forewarned, if you are looking for a review of how the actual system works that is coming soon. Well here goes the second attempt. I installed a larger drive for my main drive, dropped in the DVD and booted the machine. First thing up, This computer doesn't have enough ram. 512 is required and only 255 was found install is now exiting. Wow that was kind of rude. Anyway pop open the case drop in another stick of 256 and reboot. Next up it only recognized the local drive. No big deal you say but I have an onboard RAID controller with 200gb of storage, and it doesn't see it. Well why would I want software "RAID" when I can have hardware, so I will let the install complete and see if it can detect my RAID card at that point. 8:00pm Installing ...... While this is installing I burned the Client CD no biggie there basic iso landed on a CD no problems 8:15pm Still installing ....... Setup will complete in approximately 5

Moving?

American Cities That Best Fit You: 65% Austin 55% Denver 55% Miami 55% San Diego 50% Atlanta Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Windows Home Server

I got the beta release for Windows Home Server(WHS) on Friday. I was planning on installing it this weekend until I ran into a road block. I knew from the beginning that the plan for this release of Windows was not initially going to be offered as a box version and that this is a Release Candidate and that it shouldn't be taken as the final version. The road block I ran into was the Hard drive requirements. WHS requires 65GB to install. 65, I have lots of 40 GB drives and even a 60GB drive, my next largest are 2 200GB and they are currently in a RAID setup that I don't want to break. So my plans for the weekend were shot as I could not even install the software to see the interface for myself. I was really looking forward to playing with it. I guess that will have to wait until I get more drives, or the hardware becomes available and the cost isn't too high.

MP3 Tunes Pt. 1

I signed up for MP3 Tunes service about a month ago, and have been wanting to give it a try. My schedule has been a bit hectick for setting it up though. So about a week ago I got an e-mail from them that that said hey thanks for signing up and now that you have been a member for so long we would like to give you unlimited storage space for all your mp3s. So I figured what the heck. I downloaded the application to "sync" my files and set it to run. It took a very long time. In fact it still is not complete and I need to figure out where it left off. I am still checking out the site as far as streaming goes so I will let you know about that in a future post. But as far as the upload goes just realise that it is very slow. I uploaded just over 100 songs and it took 3 days to do this, this was with a machine that is not used regualarly(YMMV).

Toronto

I just got back from a whirlwind 3 day trip to Toronto with the Caro High School Choir. Overall I would say it was a good time. No one died, we all came back in one piece, and I didn't have to tape any kids to the ceiling of the bus, though I think the charter company would have been a little upset about that. Our Itinerary was definitely jam packed and I am sure that helped with keeping the kids in line. Here is what it looked like. Day 1 - Leave the school, Lunch in Sarnia and some play time at a place called Playdium . It is kinda like Gameworks only not as big. After that leave for the hotel. On arrival get changed and head to The Old Spaghetti Factory for Dinner. Immediately following dinner head to the Princess of Wales Theatre for the evening performance of Phantom of the Opera. Return to hotel, sleep. Day 2 - Leave hotel, head to Rogers Center "Skydome" for a tour, immediately after cross the park and head to the top of the CN Tower . After the CN to

Radio Control

I have a Traxxas something. It used to be a Bandit (Buggy) , but over this last winter I replaced the A-arms and drive shafts wheels and carriers and so now it is more of a Rustler (Stadium Truck) . Well it had the original speed control and motor from when I bought it in 2003. When I bought it, it was used so there was already lots of wear but it had some pretty good getup and go, that is until I put the new wheels on. Bigger wheels = more rolling mass = slower speed and shorter battery life. I went from 15 - 18 min of run time down to 5 on a 1500 battery pack. So this weekend I decided to head to my LHS and pick up some new parts. So I got a new Electronic Speed Control (ESC) to replace the mechanical (MSC) one that it came with. And I also picked up a new Speed Gems 16 Turn Motor I also got some new shocks for the rear and finally got the tires glued on. So now the transformation is nearing completion. I haven't decided what I want to do with it next but here are som

Where have I been

Well, sometimes life gets in the way of doing things. This is what happened to me over the past couple of weeks. I was asked to run audio for a high school performance of The Wizard of Oz. Despite it being a HS performance it was actually quite good and very well attended. The school is a class C school and there were around 500 people there for each of the 3 nights of performances. From what I understand this is more than went to all of the football games last season. So on this board here we went from a 5 mic production to a 12 mic production in 2 nights. It is amazing what can happen when people see microphones and suddenly get very quite on their lines. And no we didn't run the levels that high, I was just marking which channels had done a sound check with me before we started rehearsal that night. Rehearsals for this performance were Monday - Thursday for the week before the show they started at 7:00 and were finished around 10. Then since we were in the gym since the

Sorry

Not much time to post recently. I will put together something to give you on what has been taking all of my time recently. I will try to get that up here tomorrow.

Sponsored Reviews

So talked about this in a previous post , and thought it looked like a cool idea. It still seems to be in theory anyway but their sign-up process is non-secured and they ask for your SSN. What kind of modern company would have a web-service that requires sensitive information and not have it encrypted? I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that because it is brand new perhaps it is just something that was over-looked. Even though that is a big thing to over-look. I sent them an e-mail about it and have yet to hear back from them.

Home Office Remodel Phase II: Pt 2 Electrical

Well, the electrical portion is all done. Lessons learned. Let's see, Always use junction boxes when tieing lines together. Be sure to buy extra wire nuts, you are bound to lose a box until you a finished when it magically reappears, same goes for electrical tape, two rolls minimum even if you only need 6 inches. Well here is the part that you have all been waiting for I know. Be sure to click the images for a better picture. Here is what is left of that tangled mess between the floor joists. Here is the outlet for under the desk. So stay tuned, more DIY is coming soon. The next section is Phase III: Phone

Home Office Remodel Phase II: Electrical

Well the electrical isn't quite finished yet so I will wait until I get that done which will probably be tonight or tomorrow. But I thought I would post a couple of pictures of what I found when I started opening the ceiling to run the wire for the outlets. This first pic is from right above where the desk will be. Dad and I opened the ceiling and the wires on the left fell down just like you see them, and then we noticed the white wire coming out of the box. We grabbed Dad's testers and Yep, just as we thought the wire was hot. The previous "electrition" and I use that term loosely clipped the wire pulled the jacket out so nothing would short and left it sitting there. Ok I will admit, that was moderately disturbing, but what came next was just down right wrong. This was one of the craziest things I had ever laid my eyes upon. I could go into explination of all of the wires but I still get lost trying to tie it all together. I know that one wire comes in with

Home office remodel Phase I: Plan

I have decided to move my Home office and will display the progress for you here first up is planning. Alright so Here's the deal. This is a picture of my current home office setup. Messy isn't it. So the plan is to move all of this crap over to a different wall with a much larger desk that is to be constructed later. I have the lumber in my garage. I have decided along with Precia's influence that most of this stuff doesn't need to be seen. So we have picked another wall in the basement that we can get behind. What this will allow me to do is have one machine open for the world to see and the others can be hidden behind a wall and attached via KVM. So here is the wall. Or the back of it anyway. You can clearly see the shelves that were left by the previous owner. I have yet to decide if I will be using these or not. It all has to do with the depth of the equipment and ease of access. I will have a better idea of that after this weekend. Dad and I will be i

Who Knew

DSCN0515 Originally uploaded by treblid . Wow I never knew that Media Center was so cool, that is until I got an Xbox360. This is XM Radio online via the MC PC.

Stupid Test

Not that it matters but... I'm not sure it's that accurate. : )

Paid to Review

Ronnie, over at ronniesblog.net has talked about PayPerPost . and I agree that it is an interesting idea but as Ronnie says I don't like how you have to put the product in a given light. If I don't like the product I don't want to give it a good review. Thats not to say that I would be mean and harsh but if I don't feel I can recommend something then I don't want to recommend it just because someone is paying me to. Then I found SponsoredReviews.com this is something that I will look into. This is right from thier info page: "You write the review in your own tone, and can be as critical as needed. Constructive criticism is encouraged, but rude or hateful reviews will be declined." See this is the way to attracted a good readership. Write what needs to be said about the product but don't go overboard. No one likes to see something bashed.

Blogger or Vox

Alright so I am kind of torn, I love the way that Vox works and all of the simplicity therein. Which is where I have been posting recently, if you can call it that. But I also am very fond of the flexibility that blogger has. In that it allows me to do a number of different things and even edit the code for the template and for all of my posts. So I need to make a decision, where will my domain point? Here or there. Stay tuned for the answer.