Posts from — August 2002

After almost a week without drinking water, the township has declared our water safe to drink. It all started with a water main break last week. We didn’t have any water at all for 2 days after the break. We also had to boil our water to drink it.

If you get a chance, visit the Gallery to see the new images I placed of the “swimming polar bears.” Watching these guys had Pam and I cackling like little kids. We loved it! The pictures are in the “Cool Shots” album.

Viewsonic may have the solution I need to use my computer monitor as a TV receiver. I have WinTV card in there now but I wanted something where I could attach my Playstation and/or X-Box to my computer. The unit is called NextVision 5. I’ll check it out. Wait, Ouch. The damn thing is $199. But there is another version for only $99.

A funny thing happened today. I was asked by the BBDO ad agency to be in an instructional video they are creating to showcase a new intranet portal. They need one of their clients to read a script and talk about some of the features of this portal. I told them to call my agent.

Look to the left at the bottom of my list of links and you’ll see a syndicated link to another BlogSnob site. Once in while I’ll visit one that appears on my page. Today I found 3 Bruces. It’s a great site with lots of fun stuff.

Whenever you visit my page be sure and look at the BlogSnob link, it changes every time you visit FSB.

Syndication is a neat way to add content to your site. I enjoyed using Moreover briefly for a newspage. But I think they charge now for their service. There are others to choose from. Just go to Google and type “website syndication.” Have fun.

I got an X-Box today along with the game Halo. Since the game came out, I’ve kicked myself for getting the Playstation 2 instead of the X-Box. Well now I have both. I’ll let you know how Halo plays out. I think Pam will even get into it. She says it reminds her of Tomb Raider.

Is there a way to hook the Playstation 2 or the X-Box to my computer monitor? It would be nice to sit at my desk and play these games. But then again I have a great computer to play all sorts of games. Then why do I need these other game consoles?

Feel like playing some games on your computer and don’t want anyone to notice? Then go to Tiny Games and download several “tiny versions of classic games for your sneaky worktime pleasure”. - from Kottke

Work on the house is proceeding nicely. The windows and doors are done. So is the kitchen flooring. Next up are the kitchen countertops. We decided on a darker color (moss green) to replace the light almond there now. It will be a drastic difference.

I’ve put my message board, Network 23 back online. Due to lack of activity, I decided to take it down for a while. Register today (it’s an automated process) and join in the fun.

I broke down and bought Lord of the Rings on DVD. I was over someone’s house and the kids were watching it on their big screen TV. I had forgotten how awesome the movie was so I decided to get it right away rather than waiting for the “special edition.” The preview to the next movie, The Two Towers is worth the price of the DVD alone.

The Journal of Applied of Treknology is a forum of Trek design and technology. It has some great pictures of ships and equipment. If you’re a Trekkie, but sure and visit.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Detroit Zoo. Pam’s company has the place all to themselves after 6pm. We’ll get free dinner and then the chance to wander around the entire zoo all by ourselves. It will be nice without the crowds. The new polar bear exhibit is supposed to be really cool.

The other day I got to drive a new Hummer H2. They’re not as big as a regular hummer but it was big enough. It was a surprisingly smooth and easy to drive. I wouldn’t mind owning one just so I can run the people not using their blinkers off the road.

Today Pam and I are going down the the 8th annual Woodward Dream Cruise. There will be thousands of classic cars cruising down Woodward avenue, a famous road here in Detroit. Millions of people will be there to watch the show. Chrysler has a food tent with other activities so we’re going over to check it out. All you have to say is “free food” and we’re there.

For the past 2 years Chrysler sponsored a PT Cruiser parade. The first year was fun, PT’s were new and everyone loved to see them. It was a something to see when they came down the road, 100’s of them lined up on Woodward. The second year more than 800 PT’s were in the parade and it was too much. The parade was more like a traffic jam so we turned around shortly after getting on Woodward. This year they decided not to have one.

On Tuesday, I get to drive one of the new PT Cruiser Turbo-charged models. I’m anxious to see the difference in the turbo from Pam’s PT.

Now that I have the Gallery working, I want to to take tons of pictures with my Kodak DC280 digital camera.

So I found a couple of useful websites that feature tips and tricks for digital photography. Megapixel Myths dispells some common misconceptions about digital cameras.

How Stuff Works has an article telling you about the inner workings of digital cameras. I thought it was useful to understand how the camera works so I can maybe take better pictures.

Resolution Demystified clears up common misunderstandings about camera resolution.

I don’t watch The Screen Savers on TechTV very often. I stopped because they got away from their original premise - answering computer questions. They have all these other segments, special guests and stupid stuff that it became boring to watch. I also stopped because I don’t care for Patrick, he shows little patience for the callers and doesn’t really go well with my hero, Leo LaPorte. And don’t bring in that annoying brat, Chris Pirillo. He knows his stuff but his stupid jokes and mannerisms annoy the hell out of me.

Despite my misgivings, I still manage to catch an episode once in a while. Tonight’s show mentioned a small but addictive game called Icy Towers. I got it for Pam, installed it on the laptop and I haven’t seen her since. It’s a great game.

Go to their site, www.thescreensavers.com to find out how you can get the file.

They opened a new Target by our house, so we checked it out. As we were leaving, we noticed that a new Chili’s restaurant was also open for business. As we approached, a big sign saying “Training Day” told us the place was closed for all but invited guests. They were there for the new employees to practice their serving skills before the place opened to the public. As we were turning around to leave, the manager opened the door and told us to come in, even without an invitation. Cool. We were given special menus with no prices listed. “Why aren’t there prices on your menu?” Pam asked. “Because everything is free today, order anything you want.” The server said. So we pigged out.

Geez, I haven’t updated in a while. So settle down, we have a lot to cover.

PDA Handyman is a good site to keep you updated with news, reviews and articles about your PDA.

The Gallery is working again, at least for now. My webhost, 34sp.com are changing some scripts starting tomorrow that may affect it. In the meantime, go to the Gallery and check out all the images I have uploaded. I plan on cramming it full of photos so keep visiting.

If you’re a computer geek like me, you love your boot disks. This guy, Bart has all the boot disks you would ever want. I downloaded a couple to use at work. Would you believe there are still users at work with (gulp) Windows 95?

With the reloading of my system last week, I took an inventory of all my MP3 files. I have well over 1000 songs, and Pam has about 500. I thought about converting my old Dell 200 into a MP3 server of sorts. There are several Unix solutions and one from the Sourceforge people that gave me Gallery. What I finally settled on is the latest version of MusicMatch. It organized all my songs, and automatically updated all the ID tags for most of the songs. If you haven’t looked at MM for a while, its time to check it out again, the program is excellent.

This still leaves me with the issue of getting my music from any computer on the network. For now I’ll just access them via a mapped network drive. A central media server would be better. I would even like to stream my MP3 files into my wireless Pocket PC. How cool would that be? Excellent, I have a new project…

Network 23 is coming back this week. I just have to add a new button on the index page. Are you going to use it this time? I think it would be great to get some good stuff going on there? If I made it so you don’t have to register would that help? You tell me.

Should I wait for the platinum version (at $26) of Lord of the Rings or get it now? At Target today they had the DVD for $17. I guess I could rent it at Blockbuster and then I can wait until November 12th for the Platinum Edition - with 30 extra minutes.

We had big plans to go to the Palladium’s Premiere theatre in Birmingham. Each week they show the premiere for new movies in a special high-class theatre. For $24 each, you get dinner before the movie, luxurious leather seats with tables and all the popcorn you care to eat.

We get there an hour early on to find the power was out on the entire block where the theatre is located. Bah! So went went home.