My New Media Center PC

I got a new Acer at Tiger Direct. It was just a cheapo, but it is more than adequate for my Media Center. It is running Windows Vista, and I added on 2 digital tuners and a 750 GB secondary SATA drive for tv recording and media storage.

19" LCD (this came with the PC, but it is upstairs in my office now)
Embedded high-definition audio with 7.1-channel audio support
Two external speakers
VGA, DVI-D, headphones, microphone and six audio ports
Interface Ports
RJ-45 LAN
VGA
Headphones
Microphone
DVI-D
FireWire® (IEEE 1394)
Two PS/2®
Six audio
Eight USB 2.0 (four front, four back)
Communications
Gigabit LAN
V.92 modem
Bunch of Included Software
NTI Media Maker™
Six 3.5" drive bays (two external, four internal)
Two 5.25" drive bays
One PCI Express® 2.0 x1
One PCI Express® 2.0 x16
Two PCI v2.3
USB mouse and multimedia English keyboard
250 watt power supply

The secondary drive is so that all the recording/deleting of tv and other media takes place on a drive other than the one where the operating system resides. This will help keep the PC quick and responsive. Also in the "keep the PC quick and responsive" department - the PC will be locked down for program installation: no apps will be installed to the PC besides what is already there, with a few minor exceptions.

The two tv tuners allow me to record two shows at once.

Conversational Mockery

(03:36) lancer: ok
(03:37) jamesn: Did you mean: OK...
(03:37) lancer: yep
(03:38) jamesn: The ellipses are crucial
(03:38) jamesn: See more in Chapter 7 of James' Guide to Conversational Mockery

My plan for revenge against the cable company – part 1

Intro

My cable bill is $125 a month.  Ridiculous.  That includes road runner and hd cable.  It also includes that lovely $8/month fee for the dvr.  Over the lifetime of that dvr I’m pretty sure I have paid for it about 5 times.  My plan is to set myself up with an alternative to cable, perfect it, and get as many other people as I can to do the same thing.  My first goal is to keep Time Warner Cable from making $1250 a year from me.  After that, I will start preaching and hopefully converting other people as well.

My plan:

1. Get an over-the-air digital antenna, to receive local channels (including all the major networks, and HDTV) for free.
2. Build my own DVR,  possibly with Windows Media Center.
3. Watch “cable channels” such as Comedy Central and Food Network over the Internet.
4. Cancel my cable, except the road runner part so that I can still do #3.
5. Research other options for Internet.

Part 1

Most people (including me until not long ago) don’t realize that tv stations all over the place are broadcasting over-the-air (OTA) HD signals, and that the quality of those signals can be better than what you can get over cable or satellite (because these OTA signals don’t use all the lossy compression that cable and satellite signals do).  Buying a UHF digital antenna will allow you to pickup these signals, for free.

So, I bought a UHF digital antenna.  Specifically I got the Philips PHDTV1 Silver Sensor indoor antenna from Amazon.com, I connected it to my tv and it works great!  Now of course I’m not receiving MTV and Comedy Central with this – instead I just get whatever signals are broadcast in my geographic location.  In my case those are FOX/HD, CBS/HD, NBC/HD, ABC/HD, PBS/HD, CW/HD, WRDC/HD, and some spanish channels.  Sweet!

Part 1 accomplished.

Technorati Tags: Time Warner Cable, Cable Bill, Free TV, PVR, DVR

BrewzKey

Every once in a while its good for all of us, after a hard work day, enjoy a tasty cold beverage.  And you should never be caught without the means to open said tasty beverage.  Enter the BrewzKey.  Your key to bottled goodness.

Wakeboarding

I am the proud owner of a new wakeboard.

board: msrp 399.99

bindings: msrp $329.99

I paid $150 total for both. Nice!

Haiku-speak

There's a local Raleigh guy who is twittering in all haikus. What started as a simple joke turned into a nerd-fest. By the way, I wouldn't bother reading any of this unless you are completely bored beyond hope of any possible entertainment in the next 4 months:

(11:12) lancer: you know what is fun? when i'm messaging to you, writing in haiku

(11:12) jamesn: Like the driving rain

(11:13) jamesn: Waves that crash against the shore

(11:13) jamesn: You're breaking my balls

...

(11:14) lancer: hey, wait a minute, you cant try to be like me, I am haiku man

(11:15) jamesn: I'm really quite good

(11:15) jamesn: At creating great haikus

(11:15) jamesn: from random bullshit

...

(11:18) jamesn: I think I want beer

(11:18) jamesn: For lunch, maybe, whatever

(11:18) jamesn: No, I NEED some beer

...

(11:26) lancer: I cant wait for beach, much great beer I will drink up, please fill up my cup

(11:27) charless: I refuse to join you in this.

(11:28) lancer: you are just jealous, you probly cant count that low, I still like you though

(11:29) charless: carry to the beach. plastic cups and salt so sweet. drunk from noon to night

(11:30) jamesn: Tequila is shit

(11:30) jamesn: I prefer beer from a keg

(11:30) jamesn: Like men with balls do.

(11:31) jamesn: Holy fucking shit

(11:32) jamesn: This is like the tenth haiku

(11:32) jamesn: I've done in a row

(11:32) jamesn: You need to blog this

(11:33) lancer: its out of control, we may have to get you help, for your crap haikus

(11:33) jamesn: Because at this fucking point

(11:33) jamesn: it's automatic

(11:33) lancer: I will do that now, in conversations with james, we are so stupid

(11:49) lancer: (11:31:05 AM) ChopperCharles: ugh Lance has started, an annoying haiku war, want to kill him now.

(11:43) lancer: haha thats funny, who did you send that line to? did they roll their eyes?

(11:44) charless: I sent it to chris, he started a long reply, but never sent it.

(11:45) lancer: chris is still counting, I bet his heads hurting now, too much computing

(11:46) charless: ARRRG STOP THIS MADNESS! I am going insane man, you're driving me nuts.

(11:47) lancer: you have to ignore, from now on all my replies, will be in this style

(11:48) charless: I am weeping now. Will this horror never end? I just want to work.

No, not really

(03:29) lancer: wow "Hispanics, who make up about 15 percent of the population today, will account for 30 percent in 2050, according to the new projections."

(03:29) lancer: "The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 19 million."

(03:29) lancer: holy shit

(03:30) jamesn: Lou Dobbs warned us

(03:31) jamesn: I have seriously considered learning Spanish recently

(03:31) jamesn: and volunteering to teach English

(03:31) lancer: well the solution is clear

(03:31) lancer: white people must begin having as many babies as possible, even if they are uncared for or placed on welfare.

(03:32) jamesn: I guess we'd better hit the clubs after work

(03:32) lancer: ok

Triathlon Pics

There are 12 pictures of me from the Triathlon. Looking at them, I noticed that I make a lot of weird faces...mostly looking very much in pain. I should probably work on that huh? If I want to get the digitals, it would cost me $336. Can you believe that? Jeez. It might have been less insulting if they just spit on me during the race as I ran past.

For all your ridiculously over-priced photography needs, visit fotojack.com. Yay for them. I emailed them to see if they'd give me a better offer, we shall see what they said. As you can tell from the pictures, it was raining during the race, so those poor photographers did have to stand out in the rain all day.

Triathlon Time!

So, today was the triathlon at UNC Wellness Center. This was my first one, and it was a "Super Sprint Triathlon", which basically means that the distances are shorter so that you can sprint through each. Of course, i can't sprint through each, so to me "Super Sprint" just means "Super Short". :) It was a 250 yard swim, followed by a 9 mile bike ride, and finally a 5k run.

How did I do? Well, I am glad to have done it, proud of myself, yet at the same time a little disappointed that I didn't go harder. I think I had more in me than I realized. I wanted to take it easy on the run part because I was a little paranoid about working my ankle too hard so soon after my injury. Enough excuses, here's how I did:

I swam the 250 yards in 4:11, that was the 6th fastest in my age group. The swim was the part I was most worried about just because of lack of experience. I used to swim all the time as a kid before I left for college, but since then I've only swam laps a handful of times. I went out and swam laps twice before the race and did ok. Anyway...I'm very excited about my time because that included an unnecessary pause between laps to allow the people I'd caught to get a little distance on me so I wouldn't have to pass them! Next time I will go harder and just pass them!

The bike was a biiiiiiiiitch. So...one more excuse: I was on a little cheapo Target mountain bike, not a road bike. With the blessing of my friend Nicole, who convinced me to do this race in the first place, I'd like to blame my bike time on that. It took me 43:18 to do the 9 miles. The bike ride was a bit demoralizing because I'd be in my lowest gear peddling as fast as I could, and road bikers were passing me like crazy going twice my speed and barely peddling at all! Needless to say, I dropped from 6th fastest in my age group down to 17th (out of 18!) pretty quickly.

The run was the weirdest part. When I got off the bike, it took me a bit to get my land legs back, and when I did it was not pretty. First of all, during the swim the rain was pouring down outside, completely soaking my towel, socks, and shoes. This didn't cause any discomfort on the bike ride but during the run it was just *squish* *squish* *squish* *squish*. Very odd. Then, uselessly trying to peddle faster to keep up with the road bikes took a toll on my shins and ankles, and running hurt a bit at first. This is where the little bit of disappointment I have comes into play. I pretty much resigned myslef, because of the sore muscles and the ankle injury to just run really slow. I didn't realize I could do more until the last little stretch of the run where I sprinted to the finish. After the sprint I thought I was stupid for not going harder during the run, which took me a dismal 34:16.

So my overall time was 1:25:39. When I got home I got back in bed. ;)

Next time, if I can borrow someones road bike for this race, I want to see if I can knock 15 minutes off my total time (I figure I'll be able to knock 20 seconds or so off my swim time [maybe more if I train properly], bike faster and with less effort, and run faster with less pain and discomfort after the bike ride) my goal time will be 1:10:00.

Nerdiness

Background: "Sam" is an intern in the office who happens to wear a pair of blue socks with that rolling stones tongue-out-the-mouth logo about 3 times a week.

(04:44) lancer: sam must have many pairs of those rolling stones socks
(04:44) lancer: samwise
(04:45) jamesn: I am not checking out his socks
(04:45) jamesn: But any LOTR reference is awesome
(04:46) jamesn: I say LOTR because that's what the cool kids call it
(04:46) lancer: and its faster to type
(04:46) lancer: kinda like HPATGOF
(04:46) jamesn: I am dissapointed to have figured that out
(04:47) lancer: no you aren't
(04:47) lancer: you're proud
(04:47) jamesn: But, yes, may fantasy buffs have missed opportunities to shed teir virginity in typing out the ludicrous names of their favorite pasttimes
(04:51) lancer: speaking of, the 3rd of the only 4 part trilogy I know of is oming out soon! First there was E, then there was E, and now there is B!
(04:52) jamesn: ...
(04:52) jamesn: I'm trying to remember the name of the book that comes after Eragon
(04:52) lancer: :)
(04:52) lancer: we are truly nerds
(04:52) lancer: of course I already pre-ordered B
(04:53) jamesn: am I right?
(04:53) lancer: yes
(04:53) jamesn: Do I have nerd intuition?
(04:53) lancer: not if you can't figure out the 2nd one
(04:53) jamesn: Wow. I am proud and ashamed of myself.
(04:53) jamesn: I am proud for having leapt to that conclusion first
(04:53) lancer: yeah, you shouldn't repeat this to anyone :)

Glossary: LOTR = Lord of the Rings
HPATGOF = Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
E = Eragon
E = Eldest
B = Brisngr
Christopher Paolini = the author of E, E, and B.

Cholesteroni

Years ago, back when I was a fattard (thats a slow fat person), the doc said my cholesterol was so bad that if I didn't lower it he'd put me on medication. Back then it was like 250 or 260 or something, which basically meant that it was surprising I didn't have a heart attack on the way to the shower in the morning.

Of course now I am a much healthier (and happier) person. My cholesterol has been at good levels for many years now, but now my cholesterol is at an all time optimal level.

my total: 170
- less than 200 = desirable
- 200-239 = borderline-highrisk
- > 240 = lose the remote, fatty

my tri: 65
- less than 150 mg/dL = normal
- 150–199 = borderline-high
- 200-499=high
- greater than 500 = holy crap, put down the damn cheeseburger!

my hdl: 69
- greater than 60 = rock on baby
- less than 40/50 [male/female] = lay off the fast food chunky butt

my ldl: 97 (< 100 = optimal, 100-129=normal, 130-159= borderline, > 160=high, > 190=you bleed crisco)

Fo mo info like dis: American Heart Association.

New Stuff on the Home Front

On the home front:

I’m planning on trying some triathlon events, although I really would prefer to try some adventure racing instead.  First I’m going to start with a tiny little super sprint triathlon, where the distances are very short.  First I have to wait for my ankle to get healed though, but the swimming part will be the only tough leg for me so I can train for that even with the injury (for those who don’t know, I took a bad sprain playing volleyball about 5 weeks ago).  I’m also planning on my first half marathon in November.  I need to get to work training for this one ASAP if I am going to make it.  I’m sure that I’m out of shape since I haven’t done any running in the last 5 weeks.  For now swimming and mountain biking will be the bulk of my exercise.  Got any good advice for me?

I have recently enjoyed live performances of Iris Dement, The Bowerbirds, and Tom Petty.  I love live music!  We also went to see Dave Attell, who was absolutely freakin’ hilarious!  I went to all of these with someone I met recently, and I’m having a blast spending time with her.

My friends keep making fun of me because I have it in my head that I want to buy a 2009 Toyota Prius.  I don’t think the Prius body style is as lame as they say, but for all that mpg I don’t really care either.  Right now I drive a 2002 F-150 gas guzzler, which has its uses of course…but also has its hefty gas price tag.  Maybe I’ll keep it too and just park it most of the time.  Maybe whatever gas money I save on a new hybrid I can throw into buying a boat!  Thats not exactly a step in the carbon-neutral direction, huh?  Everytime I drive over the lakes around the area I am so completely jealous of those people I see riding their waverunners, skiing, wakeboarding, etc.  I want to get out there, but a ski boat is a big chunk of money to drop.  Is it worth it?

Its almost time to go white water rafting!  Can't wait for that!  :P  Then I want to learn how to do some river kayaking.

Iris Dement, The Bowerbirds

A few weekends ago I went to see a couple shows with Lauren.

One was Iris Dement, who thought it would be a good idea to wear a country picnic tablecloth dress. You know, those checkerboard ones? Nice. Between songs she talked like she was stoned out of her gourd and about to pass out, but she sang beautifully. Favorite quote (said in a total stoner voice): "my fingers are sticking to the keys...". I took some video on cell phone, but they are so tiny they aren't worth uploading. The guy that opened for her was so boring that I forgot his name. I did recognize him as soon as we walked in though - he is the guitarist for John Prine. For somebody who has been entertaining for so long, he really needs to work on his stage presence and his conversation between songs. Good voice, but some of the songs he played were a little too silly for my taste. Lots of old people at this show. Every once in a while I would nudge Lauren and say "hey look, there are some young people ", pointing at some people without gray hair. Here's a clip of my favorite Iris song, which is actually a duet with John Prine. If you know my taste in music, you can probably already guess that its a bit out there.

We also went to see The Bowerbirds at Duke Gardens. These people were really good. The lead singer reminded me a bit of Damien Rice. Their instruments were unique too - of course the rhythm guitar, but also an auto harp, an accordion, and a big bass drum. I wish the girl in the group had done more singing, her voice was really nice too. Lots of hippies at this show. Once I nudged Lauren and said, "hey look, an old person". It stormed during this show, and we sat on the grass in the rain and got soaked!

Awesome weekend

I wanted to share this past weekend, it was so much fun. It started Thursday night - Lauren and I sat on a blanket in the grass at Koka Booth Amphitheater with some sandwiches and a bottle of wine, watching "Twilight Zone: The Movie". Turns out the movie was not so hot, but it was still a great time. We definitely had a great Thursday night. :)

Friday night a group of us went to see Dave Attell at Charlie Goodnight's. I'm pretty sure that this was the best show I've seen at Goodnight's, and I've been to a lot of them. To sum it up, every single time I took a sip of my drink I was concerned about whether or not I'd be able to swallow it before he made me laugh again! If you get a chance to see this guy live, I'd definitely recommend it.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early. I did not want to leave the comfy bed I was in, but bbq demanded it. I smoked 4 pork shoulders and also made 4 racks of babyback ribs, baked beans, and slaw. Lauren brought fruit and jalapeno cornbread, Blake brought macaroons, James brought cupcakes, and everybody else brought a boatload of beer. Despite the fact that weather forecasters in NC are hopeless in the summertime, I was worried about the threat of rain all day. Checkout this picture of my ghettofied back patio, protecting the smoker and grills from rain. Turns out the last 30 minutes or so had pouring rain, and probably wouldn't have effected the cooking anyway!

Sunday, after spending the morning cleaning up after my shockingly well behaved friends, it was time for a little adventure. Mountain biking on some insane trails on the backside of Lake Crabtree park, followed by Kayaking with Tom. I thought it would be a little tougher than it was, but it could still be a good upper body workout if I wanted it to be. We had so much fun that both of us have threatened to buy our own kayaks. I'll have to make more room in the garage!

I haven't seen "Dark Knight" yet, but I can't wait to. Apparently it is playing at the IMAX, so I'm hoping to catch it there!

Car Alarms

[11:41] jamesn: I want an alarm for my car that starts blaring sirens and says "WARNING: SOME JACKASS HAS SET OFF HIS CAR ALARM! WARNING: SOME JACKASS HAS SET OFF HIS CAR ALARM!"
[11:41] jamesn: Then when I can turn it on when someone else's siren is going
[11:41] jamesn: And when I turn it off, instead of chirping, it will say "THANK YOU, JACKASS"

Audible .aa to .mp3

I checked out a few applications that claimed to be able to convert Audible's crappy DRM'd .aa files to .mp3.  All of them failed (for me at least), except one:  Total Audio Converter from coolutils.com.  For a well spent $19.99 I am now able to automatically convert my Audible downloads to a format (mp3) in which they will work on my cell phone and my mp3 player, neither of which are otherwise supported by Audible.  Woohoo!

Now if only Amazon would provide direct MP3 downloads for Audible books (where possible).

I have the output folder for Total Audio Converter set to a Live Mesh folder, so that I can have access to my books both on my laptop at home and on my desktop at work.  And my friend Eric pointed out that Total Audio Converter supports command options, so I can completely automate the whole process from the point of downloading from Audible!  All I'll have to do is start the Audible download and voila!

Technorati Tags: Total Audio Convert, Audible, .aa to .mp3

Fire Ant Bastards Bit my Butt

Mothers Day weekend I went to Charlotte to visit my mother and do some work for her around the house.  On Sunday, she asked me to transplant some things into her rose bed.  So there I am sitting on the edge of her rose bed on an old railroad tie, when OUCH, something stung!

I looked down and saw red ants all over where I was sitting, and I jumped up and started high-tailing it down the driveway towards the door to the house, blinding flailing and trying to swipe the ants off my pants.  On the way I kicked off my shoes and threw off my shirt.  I made it inside with just my pants and socks on and went bounding down the hallway, when my socks slipped on the wood floor and I went in the air cartoon-style.  I landed elbows first and howled in pain, meanwhile ants were biting and stinging me!  I got up, elbows bruised, ran to the bathroom, and realized that I'd just carried fire ants into the house!  There were at least 20 of them still on the seat of my pants, even after my swiping and my great fall.  I looked in the mirror, and there were already 4 big red welts on my butt!  For the first time in my life, someone could accurately say, "Lance did a dance with ants in his pants" (do you have any idea how many times I heard rhymes like that as a kid?).

The story gets worse.

My mom and sister, laughing at me a little at this point, pointed out that urine would stop the pain.  So what did I do?  Yep.  I peed on my own butt (ok, actually I peed in a cup and cotton ball swabbed my butt).  What a strange thing that was to do.  But, for anybody who is laughing - it worked.  I eventually found one other bite that I did not urine-swab, and that one turned out to be the only one that itched severely, even though they all blistered up that same day.

Interestingly, fire ants actually do bite and sting.  They first grab on with their bite, and then double over their bodies to deliver the sting.  They do this not once but repeatedly.  Once the first ant stings, it emits pheromones that cause the other ants to swarm and join in the fun stinging.

When people say they are done...what do they mean?

Ok, so this isn't a conversation with James...but its still funny.

(04:21) lancer: he is "done"
(04:21) lancer: if you know what I mean
(04:21) spencerb: ok so like 2 months
(04:21) spencerb: got it

Oops...Summer Injury #2

Yep, its happened again. :( That's the walking cast I'll be wearing for the next who knows how long. Of course I can't actually walk on it yet.

How did it happen? Volleyball. Some guy landed under the net on my side when he was hitting. I was blocking and came down on top of his foot, rolled mine over.

No Woman, No Cry

From the "Doh!" department:

Lots of times I only hear the tune, and maybe the main hook lyrics, and ignore the other lyrics. So...maybe I'm the only one who thought "No Woman, No Cry" meant that having no woman translated to having no tears. I thought that was pretty funny, personally. :)

Ever since I found out that it really means "No, don't cry sweetheart"...the song is not nearly as fun for me. :P

My Cuz: Best New Country

Check out my cousin, Wendy Newcomer - listed as "Best New Country" by AOL Music! The link there seems (as of 6/9/2008) to be bogus, but here is the corrected link to Wendy's feature on AOL's "The Boot".

Listen to Wendy at Amazon:

Wendy Newcomer

Technorati Tags: "Wendy Newcomer", "AOL Music", Music, Country

A Letter to Audible about DRM

I still haven't found a very convenient way to listen to Audible books. I don't want to go out and buy a new phone or a new mp3 player just so that it will work with Audible's unnecessary restrictions. Burning to CD's is a bad option because at a minimum of 14+ cd's per book, its just wasteful. CDRW's are out because the cd player in my car can't read them. Audible's software players are decent, but they are only supported on the desktop (I don't want to listen to books on my desktop) and specific devices. I tried it for a while on a Pocket PC device that I had access to through work, and while it was fine for in the car it was too large and bulky to take running with me. So finally I started burning the books to a set of CDRW's (which I repeatedly use just for this purpose), then I rip each of those cd's one by one, and finally I move the resulting mp3's onto my phone (for in the car) or my mp3 player (for when I go running). Pain. In. The. Butt.

So recently I tried Audible Air, Audible's java player app for mobile phones. It isn't supported on my phone, unfortunately. So I emailed them and got a very detailed and polite response about why Audible Air won't work on my phone (the device manufacturer has to update the firmware so that it can understand the DRM blah blah blah). BS!

Then I saw a post on Boing Boing about how Amazon (Amazon purchased Audible early this year) said that it would not remove the DRM from Audible's audio books unless customers complained enough. So, if you're an Audible customer (or might be in the future), I hope you'll take a moment to email them and share your frustration about DRM. Here is the email I sent to audible@custhelp.com:

I hope you'll also pass along these comments about your DRM, so that things can change. I read that Amazon plans to keep the Audible DRM unless customers complain enough. Well, here is my argument against DRM:

You said - "The encryption is required by the publishers to insure the security of their book files..." While this may have been true at one time, I believe this statement is now incorrect. Random House nows allows its online retailers to sell audio books without DRM (see the following letter from Random House: http://craphound.com/DRMLetter22108.pdf). According to one well known author/blogger (Cory Doctorow, http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/21/random-house-audio-a.html) who ran into this problem, it is Audible itself who is placing this restriction. Even authors who WANT their books to be without DRM cannot do so if they desire to distribute their books through Audible (there is a well known author/blogger who has had this problem in the past).

Random House is smart enough to know that pirated copies of audio books, just like music, will exist no matter what. Amazon and Audible are smart enough to know this as well, or at least they should be. Right now, even with your DRM, I could (if I wanted to, which I don't) burn a copy of a book to a CDRW, rip the cd's to mp3's, and distribute those mp3s illegally. I could even merge them together into one large mp3 if I wanted. DRM doesn't stop the kind of people who do this - all it does it inconvenience good customers who just want to listen to good audio books on their devices or in their cars without having to burn 22 cds. As it is now, in order to listen to books the way I want to, I have to burn to a CDRW, rip the cd's to mp3's and manually copy those mp3's onto my SD card for my mobile device. Talk about a painful process. All so that Audible and publishers can accomplish what? Nothing.

Then there's the issue of Audible wasting time and money struggling to keep ahead of software applications that can convert from .aa to .mp3. Even more time and money is wasted trying to "support" x device. You would already support my device if you just gave me mp3s instead of a DRM mess.
What keeps me from buying more audio books from Audible? What keeps me from buying a Kindle from Amazon? DRM, and only DRM. I already canceled my Audible membership once out of frustration over this. I signed up again after Amazon bought Audible hoping that things would change. I hope I'm not wrong, and I hope it happens sooner than later.

Technorati Tags: Amazon, Audible, DRM, .aa, .mp3

Diet Coke Bandit

A long time ago I wrote about the diet coke bandit of my office. Sometime between then and now I cut back on my diet beverage intake drastically. Then I probably drank 4 or 5 a day, now I might drink 2 a week. Instead I drink mostly water. Sometimes I put lemon juice in my water - enter the re-emergence of the Diet Coke Bandit, now known as the fridge bandit.

The fridge bandit used the last of my lemon juice, and then put the container right back in the fridge - empty. Can you believe that? Shameless.

The fridge bandit also seems to be too busy to pay attention to what he or she is doing. Either that or they're just plain dumb. They cannot seem to figure out the engineering marvel that is known as the fridge pack. Instead, they open 12 packs of sodas on the end of the box. Even worse, after they open the box in this way, they put the box into the fridge in such a way that the sodas will roll out of the box (on its side instead of on the top or bottom). I wish this person would give me a break.

UPS Online Tools

I've been messing with the UPS Online Tools - tools that software developers could use to write applications that take advantage of UPS data such as shipment costs, tracking, and address verification. I say could, because UPS makes it so difficult to do anything you practically have to sign over a kidney. I thought it was funny that UPS has trademarked the color brown.

Brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, brown, brown! Neener neener. Brown!

(03:18) lancer: Note:
UPS, the UPS Shield trademark, the UPS Ready mark, the UPS OnLine® Tools mark and the Color Brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

(03:20) jamesn: UPS HitCreek is their developer integration program. Is that trademarked?

Audible doesn't have Watership Down

A short conversation with James:

(03:07) lancer: hmm...audible doesn't have watership down
(03:07) lancer: or anything from that author
(03:07) jamesn: Do they have "Fucking Travesty, the Book"?
(03:08) jamesn: Or "Why we should not be in business?" By A. Audible Jackass?

South Mountains State Park

A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of going on a camping trip with some friends.  Destination:  South Mountains State Park.  It was a blast.  My favorite part actually turned out to be what I was afraid of. 

We left on Friday after work, which meant we would arrive at the campsite late.  After taking our sweet time getting there (even driving around searching for the Russel Stover outlet on the way) we made it about 10 minutes before the gates to the park closed (whoops, that was close)!  Then we discovered that all the car camping places were already taken, and we'd have to hike out to a campsite.  Ouch!  That's exactly what I was afraid of!  We had no backpacks, and it was dark and we only had one headlamp!  We ended up strapping whatever we could fit on our backs and biking in the dark to the campsite about 2 miles away.  Once we got there it was awesome, until we realized that we forgot to bring something to make fire with!  :)  Fortunately there was one other group not too far away and they gave us some fire.

Blake showed us how to make "boy scout burgers" - a ton of hamburger meat and onion and spices smashed down inside aluminum foil and thrown directly in the fire.  Those were great.  The next night we made s'mores as well, which I hadn't done since I was a little kid in the boy scouts.

We went mountain biking and hiking all over.  The biking was amazing - it was incredibly difficult going uphill (I did a lot of walking and pushing my bike uphill!) and it was incredible SCARY going downhill!  A couple of times I thought for sure I was going to go flying over my handle bars and tumbling down a mountain side!  The highlight of the hiking was High Shoals Falls.  It was at the top of t his 80 foot waterfall that I realized my brand new phone was designed by a moron.

Google Calendar Sync

I've been using Google Calendar Sync for 2-3 months now, and I absolutely love it.  In the past I always kept my calendar in Outlook at work, and sometimes it was a pain to check that from home.  Now items in my Outlook calendar are automatically synced with my Google calendar (and vice versa).  I haven't come across a single bug or annoyance.

I like how Google Calendar is very smart about new entries.  If I create a new entry like "7pm, dinner at Angus Barn", Google automatically recognizes the time and location of that entry.  Suggestion for Google:  do the same thing with "Tom's birthday" (as well as anniversary, annual, etc).  Automatically mark that as an event that repeats yearly.

Technorati Tags: Google Calendar

Crap UI Design

I think one of my unique personality traits is that I tackle big problems with relative composure, but I often over-react to small problems or annoyances.

Lately, an issue that has been annoying me more and more (and has been pointed out to me that I get a little too upset about) is crappy software UI on household devices. Whether it be my dvd player, my cable box, or my cell phone - there appear to be a bunch of idiots designing the UI and capabilities of the software that runs on these devices.

So...because of this, and because two blogs is just not enough, I have decided to turn this non-constructive complaining into something more (debatably) useful: UI Follies. The first two posts are specific to my new Motorola i880 cell phone. But I plan to talk about more than just cell phones, and more than just handheld devices and entertainment center components. I also won't limit myself to software, though that will no doubt be the bulk.

Sidelined

Of course, 1 day after expressing how happy sports and fitness have made me, I hurt my shoulder playing volleyball. Luckily its not too bad, but I will be out for a couple weeks at least. I have an AC sprain that is bad enough to cause me a good amount of pain when raising my arm over my head, and pretty severe pain when reaching across my body towards my other shoulder. Ouch! At least there is no fracture. Whew (knock on wood).

After a few days, I get to do fun exercises, some of which hurt pretty badly right now. I know you probably aren't interested in the weird shoulder exercises I must do, but I really left this link for myself, so there. ;)

Huge milestone

Saturday was the first doubles volleyball tournament of the season for me, and it was awesome. My pitiful little mind doesn't have enough words to adequately express just how awesome it was.

First, just the excitement and anticipation of the day was great. Just to be outside with friends on a beautiful warm day, everyone with their coolers and fold-out chairs and volleyballs, the feeling breathed extra life into me.

I got to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice (for the most part, ha ha). And a big group of people who I've gotten to know and enjoy over the off-season shared two portable shelters, chairs, fruit/water/gatorade, and conversation. Then, out of 5 AA pools, I end up in a pool with some of those fun people.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I played very well. Blocking and serving have been weaknesses in my game in the past, and while they could still use improvement I definitely stepped them both up during this tournament. I have a hard time correctly utilizing that split-second when you need to see the set going up and decide whether to run up and attempt to block the hit or fall back and attempt to dig the spike, but I've been working on it and I could definitely see the payoff. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for me to win the whole thing, though! :) I had my chance and blew it. I finished #1 in my pool (I went 7-1 there for 139/144 possible points), got ranked #4 in the following single-elimination play-off, and lost by 1 point in the first round to a guy I have beaten many times in the past.

The best part though, of this Saturday, was that it made me realize I'd reached a fitness milestone I did not know I had reached. To provide background, I like to tell a story about last summer when I played in my first doubles tournament in about 6 or 7 years: how driving can hurt. After that long hot day of playing, everything on my body hurt from my eyeballs to my feet, but mostly my legs (quads and calves). I was driving home with the cruise control on, and as I reached my exit on the beltline, it was actually painful just to raise my foot a few inches off the floorboard and push it back down on top of the brake pedal. Now that's a bad shape to be in. The other tournaments last summer weren't so bad, but I would still be sore and tired and fighting cramps afterwards, and basically good for nothing the following day. But this time...I felt great. After I finished, I could have played much more. That evening after the tournament I had energy to give away, and even the next day there was no soreness whatsoever. What a great feeling. That more than anything else makes me extremely proud, but also thankful for having friends that encourage me to get in shape and stay in shape. A year ago today, I said that I was more fit than I'd been in 7 years. Today I can say that I'm much more fit than I was just last year. Next month? Next month I'll be more fit than I am today.

Tift Merritt Show

Saturday night I spent at the Carolina Theatre in Durham to see Tift Merritt in concert. I went with my friend Julie, who had never heard of Tift before. The show was really good, she sang songs from her recently released album "Another Country" (of which most was actually written in another country) as well as some older songs. She has such a wonderfully unique voice, and really gets into performing as she jams on her guitar or rocks away on her keyboard.

Tift got her start in the triangle area, and it was clear that she had a lot of old friends/family and fans in the theatre - they let her know it with several standing ovations and loud on-going cheers.

She was also interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation this past Thursday.

They were filming some hd video of the show, and I came across this post mentioning an upcoming documentary about Tift Merritt and her band.

Sara Watkins (of Nickel Creek) opened the show. Wow. She's good.

Stupid Tech Support Customers

Once upon a time, I was trying to help a customer, but he was a dumbass. :) Ok, actually it wasn't just once. Unfortunately it seems to be a recurring nightmare. What follows is the first in what will be a series of stupid tech support customer stories.

disclaimer: If you do not think this customer is stupid, you yourself may actually be stupid.

disclaimer disclaimer: The above disclaimer may only apply to you if you are a computer programmer, or otherwise skilled in the ways of the 1's and 0's.

----

Customer: "I am trying to run your demo software, but I keep getting an error." [error snipped for reader's sanity]

Me: "To fix this, go to the Tools menu and select 'Configure Libraries'. Then choose [snipped] and click 'OK'."

Customer: "I took all your advice but it still does not work."

Me: "Can you send me a screenshot of your 'Configure Libraries' dialog? You can take a screenshot using the 'Print Screen' button, and then paste into MS Paint."

Customer: "Here are some screenshots:"

[Customer gets out digital camera, takes pictures of computer monitor, sends digital pictures to me in an email]:

Could Congress Please Keep its Eye on the Ball?

Am I the only one who wonders why a congressional committee has time to discuss Roger Clemens (and other athletes') use of steroids, while there is a recession in the works, an aging baby boom generation, wars in the world (not just in the middle east), wide-spread poverty and hunger, global warming, renewable energy shortages, over-dependence on oil, and NCSU hasn't won a major ACC championship in 20 years? I mean seriously, can we please get our freaking priorities straight and let the damn baseball leagues deal with their own problems?

Lori McKenna Live!

5 or 6 years ago, I was cleaning my apartment with the tv on in the background. I wasn't watching the tv, but a song started playing on the show that was on, and the song (not the show) immediately caught my attention. The singing voice was so striking. Extremely expressive and painful, I ended up watching the rest of the tv show just so I could see the credits and find out what angel had this extraordinary singing voice. It was Lori McKenna.

I searched her out on the Internet and found out that she played only in the New England area, but I found some other songs of hers through her website and WUMB (public radio in Boston) recordings. All amazing. Fast forward to 2007 and Faith Hill records three of Lori's songs on her CD Fireflies (including the title track), Lori McKenna opens for Faith and Tim on tour, and Tim McGraw produces Lori's album Unglamorous. Pretty impressive! I always knew I had a golden ear and could pick out a star from a mile away (now I know its much further than a mile...how many miles from NC to Mass?).

So last night I got to see Lori live, at her show at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro, NC. The show was just Lori, Mark Erelli (backup vocals, mandolin, and guitar), and Russell (electric guitar) in a small theatre with a max seating of something like 300. I sat less than 10 feet from the stage at a table and drank a local brew while listening. Very nice! :)

If you want to check it out, I took a short grainy video of one of her songs: Written Permission. She apparently categorizes her music as country these days, since she signed with Warner Bros:

Technorati Tags: Live Music, Lori McKenna, Music

My Rat Terrier Anna Says "Hi!"

This is Anna, my 8 year old Rat Terrier.  She doesn't howl very much, so I thought this was really funny.  I think my favorite part is right near the end, after the alarm stops, she just freezes.  She's so frozen that it almost looks like the video is over, but its not.

Great Triangle Area Blogs

I found two great Triangle area blogs lately - unfortunately one of them seems to be dying:

Triangle Hike - places to go hiking in the Triangle.
GoGoRaleigh - all kinds of interesting nuggets about the goings on here.

There hasn't been anything new on the Triangle Hike blog since September, but maybe he is just taking the winter off. Anyway, what is already there is enough to entertain me for a while with 8 or so hikes.

Order Up: Cooking Classes

As a part of my "do new things" goals this year, I'm signing up for some cooking classes: Asian and Indian. Each one is 3 1.5 hour sessions, so it should be fun! Mmm...I love food!

Radiohead Meets "Family Guy"

My friend James loves Radiohead, and he introduced me to their music.  I like it because its really chill and relaxing.  But when I told him that one of the songs from their latest "In Rainbows" album (particularly the songs "Reckoner" and "Nude") reminded me of the old guy from Family Guy, James said, "I'm gonna be angry with you if that image sticks".  Well...here you go James:

Bud Commercial

This should have aired during the superbowl, I think its one of the funniest tv commercials I've ever seen.  I feel inspired to start my own swear jar.  I'd never seen it, but I saw it over on the blog of "the other me" (aka, the bastard that owns my .com domain name :P).

Its That Time of Year Again

Its that time of year again: time for the young girls of America setup in front of the grocery stores to prove that parents love their little girls more than their little boys. :) Yep, you got it: time for girl scout cookies!

Back on the Saddle Again...

I haven't been running much lately (ok, more than just lately...like for the last 6-8 months really), but I have been busy keeping in shape other ways. Most notably probably is Ultimate Frisbee which is a really good aerobic workout. Anyway...today the volleyball games that I had planned fell apart due to weather, so instead I went for a run. Probably the last 3 or 4 runs I been on were in the 2 mile range. But this time I set an intimidating goal of 8 miles, and I met the challenge. It was a great feeling of accomplishment when I crossed that last mile marker. Yay!

Tom Petty

Just got my tickets for the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers show at Walnut Creek in Raleigh. Woohoo!

Tift Merritt

I'm going to see Tift Merritt in March at her concert at the Carolina Theatre in Durham. Tift got her start in the triangle area.

Three Girls And Their Buddy

I said in "new year, new experiences" that I'd missed out on my chance to see Patty Griffin in Chapel Hill. Fortunately it turns out I didn't! One site said sold out, but another said there were seats available. I ended up sitting way in the back of the theatre, but fortunately it was a small theatre.

The name of the show was Three Girls And Their Buddy. It was Emmylou Harris (famous country/folk/bluegrass singer), Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin (mostly known for her pop hit "Sonny Came Home"), and Buddy Miller. The group was awesome, and they took turns singing songs and harmonizing with each other, while Buddy played guitar for all (and sang his own songs too).

My favorite was Patty, followed by Emmylou mostly because of her legend. Buddy Miller played very unique selections and was good. Shawn Colvin is very talented but she's just not my kinda thrill.

I didn't get any good pictures, just some shaky and dark video, but the picture above was taken at Patty's show in Raleigh at the NC Museum or Art back in 2006.

A new year, new experiences

This year, I want to add more spice to my life. I wasted most of the past 7 or 8 years just going through the same routine: wake up, go to work, come home, watch tv, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. Over the past couple of years I've rediscovered sports that I used to play all the time when I was younger. Now between "come home" and "go to sleep", nearly every day I get out and do something: I go to the gym to work out, play volleyball, racquetball, ultimate frisbee, or shoot pool (ok, not a sport but still fun).

For 2008, I plan to step it up. I want to get out and have more fun, play more sports, be healthier, be smarter, and most importantly - do things I've never done before. Here's a list of some things I plan to do this year (some of these things are lofty goals and some of things are ridiculously simple. I don't care, I just want to do them. :P):

• Go somewhere new (new to me, that is) and exciting for a vacation (Mexico? Jamaica?)
• Go to more concerts, comedy shows, and sporting events.
  
  So far I've seen:
  
  Will Ferrell
  Lori McKenna
  The NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
  Patty Griffin w/ Emmy Lou Harris in Chapel Hell.
  
  
• Join a new sports league (a new sport, maybe dodgeball or flag football)
• Go on a hiking trip
  
  So far I've gone hiking on the Eno River, and I am going to South State Park near Asheville, and a volleyball camping tournament in Virginia Beach.
  
  
• Go on a snow-skiing trip in the west (Colorado or Utah)
• Go on a water-skiing trip (maybe http://www.cobleskischool.com/)
• Take a cooking class, and do more cooking and less microwaving.
• Drink a lot more water and a lot less diet soda.
• Try lots of new foods and visit restaurants I've never been to.
  
  Indian food is really good.
  I found a Korean place I need to check out.
  I found a really good Thai place.
  I ate a tomato sandwich (gasp)
  
  
• Be a more friendly and outgoing person (I'm usually a pretty big ass)
• Read more books
  
  The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass.
  The Tipping Point
  
  
• Visit NY city
• Go to a ComedySportz show (maybe http://www.dsicomedytheater.com/schedule/showdetails.php?ShowID=26)
• Start a jump training workout and daily pushups/situps
• Clean up some of the little software apps I've written and put them on the web for free download.
• Hang-gliding in the outer banks.