Posted via web from knilob’s posterous

*It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.*

(X) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock
(X) Fight Club
(X) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
(X) Blazing Saddles
(X) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
(X) AnchorMan
(X) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(X) Anger Management
(X) 50 First Dates
(X) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 16 out of 22.

(X) Scream
(X) Scream 2
(X) Scream 3
(X) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(X) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: 29 out of 43. What can I say, I enjoy cheesy movies.

(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
(X) The Grinch
(X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(X) Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
( ) Robots
(X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(X) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
(X) Deep Impact
(X) KingPin
(X) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
(X) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) King Kong

Total so far: 45 out of 66. Not too bad, I guess.

( ) A Cinderella Story
(X) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(X) Final Destination
(X) Final Destination 2
(X) Final Destination 3
(X) Halloween
(X) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
(X) Flubber
(X) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(X) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(X) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
(X) I Am
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: 58 out of 90. Looks like I’ve missed some of the teen flicks.

(X) The Day After Tomorrow
(X) Child’s Play
(X) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
(X) Just Married
( ) Gothika
(X) Nightmare on Elm Street
(X) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
(X) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
(X) Bad Boys
(X) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(X) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
(X) Lone Star
(X) Bedazzled
(X) Predator I
(X) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious

Total so far: 80 out of 121. I’m a sucker for franchise movies.

(X) Independence Day
(X) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
(X) Christine
(X) E.T.
(X) Children of the Corn (Scarred me for life.)
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
(X) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet (Is this even a movie? It’s not in the IMDB.)
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(X) She’s All That
(X) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
(X) Event Horizon
(X) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 100 out of 147. I figured I would top 80+ films.

(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
(X) Sky High
(X) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
(X) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2

Total so far: 114 out of 165. I’m on track for a big finish.

(X) Swimfan (X) Miracle on 34th street
(X) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
(X) Krippendorf’s Tribe (Unfortunately.)
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(X) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 125, out of 181. Who came up with these semi-categories?

(X) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
(X) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
(X) Elf
(X) Highlander
(X) Mothman Prophecies
(X) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
(X) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(X) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard

Total so far: 136 out of 200. Still close to 66% watched.

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
(X) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
(X) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
(X) Orgazmo
(X) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(X) Kill Bill Vol. 2
(X) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
(X) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 147 out of 220. Some old horror films in this section.

(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix: Reloaded
(X) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
(X) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Hannibal

Total: 160 out or 239. I’ve seen 66.9% of these movies. I guess I’m pretty mainstream in my movie tastes. And yes, like the title says, I have no life.

This new “flexible format” should eliminate the humdrum games everyone dreads. It’s much more fun and exciting to see games that have playoff implications played in front of a national audience. I’m glad the NFL is thinking progressively in this area. Now if they’d only get their heads out of their asses in other areas.

Tags: NFL

While I was setting up some new plugins, I turned on posting via email. I was always a bit scared of this before. Tonight I decided to face my fears. Who cares if someone jacks my shit. I can always fix it later. Nothing is ever permanent in the digital age we live in now. That’s the beauty of web content.

So off we go with the new set up. I should be updating the look and feel of the site once I find a new theme to use. Sadly, I haven’t learned enough CSS to make my own theme just yet. I am getting better though. I should have my resume and portfolio online soon. That will give you a since of how far my coding skills have progressed the past couple of months.

After 75 years, Vandyland is closing it’s doors in June. My mom and I used to spend many an afternoon at Vandyland (then called Candyland) eating a banana split or drinking a milkshake before we headed home. We’d always sit up at the counter so I could talk to Mac and watch him work. I never wanted to leave because we were having such a good time. Plus, leaving meant we had to get on the interstate to head back out to Bellevue. I hated the interstate.

It’s sad to see a Nashville tradition shutting down after all of these years. I’ve been going to Vandyland all my life. I don’t know anything different. I feel like I’m losing a piece of my childhood today. I’ll have to make sure to make a few trips down there before June. If this keeps up, the Nashville of my childhood will be a distant memory.

Tags: Candyland, Nashville, tradition, Diner, Vandyland

As you can see, we’ve just made it through the initial ramp up period. We’re sitting on seven bloggers at this moment. Fill out an application if you’re interested in blogging about the “Athens of the South.” We’d love to have you.

Tags: Athens of the South, Blog, Metroblogging, Nashville

I wish I could find an audio snippet to post here. I’ll look around and see what comes up.

Tags: Bode Miller, Daron Rahlves, Hulk Hogan, Hulkamaniacs, disappointment, US Ski Team

Here are the two main examples being force fed down our throats on TV right now.

For some reason, these seem similar.
Another example of unoriginality.

MPAA, please contact me once you get a clue.

Tags: Eighties, Movies, Splash, Tom Hanks

One of my favorite video game series of all time turned 20 years old today. That’s pretty amazing to me. For the majority of my life, I’ve been playing video games of some sort. Some of my fondest memories of my childhood revolve around the little gray box hooked into my television. Celebrate well, young Link! I’m sure Ganon is out there waiting to seize the Triforce of Power once again.

Technorati Tags: Gamecube, Legend of Zelda, Link, N64, NES, Nintendo, SNES

The above statement is a lie. There was no snow in Nashville last night. After 2 solid days of meteorologist hype, the citizens of Nashville woke up thoroughly disappointed. Every weatherperson on every local station seemed to be using the same TelePrompTer. They were all claiming we’d see snowfall amounts in the range of 2-4 inches. Well, as you can see if you live in Nashville proper, we now know these “experts” don’t have a clue.

Now, some of the surrounding areas (White House, Portland, Clarksville) did see fairly significant snowfall amounts. I’m glad to they’re able to experience winter to the fullest. I wish I could say the same for us here in Nashvegas. All of those people who made the stereotypical run on Kroger are probably feeling a bit overloaded with groceries now. I feel worse for all the kids who’s parents ran out to buy them a sled or toboggan in anticipation. Lisa Spencer, Leeland Statom and Lisa Patton should have to drive around from home to home to apologize to all the children who were undoubtedly upset when they woke up this morning.

Tags: Local News, Nashville, Snow, Weather, Winter, WKRN, WSMV, WTVF

Maybe US cycling fans can rally up enough money and support to have the 2008 Tour start in New York City. I hear the organizers can be bought. We could probably get them to rename the race from the Tour de France to the Tour de Monde if we can get enough worldwide support.

Tags: Cycling, Sellouts, Tour de France

Tags: Apple, Craigslist, G5, Intel, Mac, MacBook

Tags: Bingo, Christmas, IKEA, Luck

The reason I’m now part of the PowerBook in-crowd is because my aunt just purchased a new iBook after she ran into some problems with this machine. The so called “Mac Genius” who waited on her at the Apple Store in Nashville told her she would need to buy a new hard drive and reinstall OS 9 to get the PowerBook running again. She didn’t feel like going through that process. I told her I could help her out with the upgrades and reinstall—she offered it to me instead.

After picking up this machine from her house last week, I powered this sucker on to see if I could diagnose the problem. It seemed to boot up fine, which led me to believe that the hard drive was intact. It was only after the Finder tried to load that this PowerBook locked up. I promptly looked the error message up in Google to see if there were any answers out on the Interweb. Lucky for me the first result that popped up offered a solution. So after about 15 minutes of work I had this laptop back up and running. Who’s the “Mac Genius” now?

After getting the PB running again, I decided to do a little research on installing Tiger and setting up wireless networking with it. It seems that these Powerbook G3′s run Tiger just fine. I did go out and buy a new 512MB ram stick from MacAuthority here in town. I knew 64MB just wasn’t going to cut it. I also found this article on “Pismos” at LowEndMac which mentioned this Belkin 802.11g wireless card as being compatible with AirPort. The only thing left is to upgrade the hard drive once I buy a new one for my Mac mini.

I’m pretty excited about this new PowerBook (well, new to me at least). I’ve never owned a laptop, let alone one that had wireless Internet access. I think this will allow me to post more to my blog now that I don’t have to tied down to my desktop. It’s also going to come in handy for traveling and to use as a portable workstation. It may not be super powerful, but it’ll be enough for what I want to get out of a portable machine.

Tags: Apple, Mac, PowerBook

Tags: Blizzard, MMORPG, World of Warcraft, WoW

Keith Bulluck remained very polite and congratulatory during his interviews yesterday. Keith more than likely wanted to call “bullshit” on the whole process, but he thought better of it since I’m sure he would like to go back to Hawaii one day.

“Those guys that went, I’m sure they deserved to go because of how they’ve been playing and the fact that their teams are winning.”

Yeah Keith, I’m sure Jason Taylor deserves to go to his umpteenth Pro Bowl since the Dolphins are so stellar this year. The Pro Bowl voting is such crap. Every year it’s the same guys. It’s sort of like the local elections—the coaches and players keep voting for the same names no matter what. It’s a great system.

Tags: NFL, Titans

I finally opened the wallet and grabbed one of the Dell 2005FPW flat-panel displays while they were on special this week. My wife and I have been talking about purchasing a new display ever since we bought our Mac mini in August. We’d been thinking about “rollin’ deep” with 20“ Apple Cinema Display (ACD), but we were also considering the Dell as an option. The major plus about the ACD is that it would have totally kept the Apple look and feel consistent. The only bad thing about it is the dreaded ”Apple Premium“. Was it really worth $350 more to get a display that completely matched my system?

As you can tell, I’m not so blinded by the allure of Apple. The 2005FPW is, for all intent and purposes, the same display as the ACD. I just didn’t feel like getting road hard and put up wet over it. This display rocks so far. It makes my creaky 19” CRT seem like a pile of sludge. I hadn’t realized how bad that monitor was getting. I have a feeling my wife will think the same thing once she puts some time in on the computer this weekend.

Rating so far: 8.5/10

Tags: Dell 2005FPW, Displays, Macintosh, Apple Cinema Display

There are quite a few programs out in the wild right now that will allow consumers to do just this very thing. TiVo gets my applause (Hurry up with the Mac support!) for making this easier for the non-techies out there who would love to watch Lost or Veronica Mars on their iPods while they’re on the go.

Everyday I realize that the only fair use the entertainment boneheads are interested in is what’s fair to them. Now I know why I don’t feel bad when I use BitTorrent.

Technorati Tags: iPod Video, ReplayTV, Television, TiVo

Personally, I think it has more to do with the recent rise of Home Theater PCs and DVRs offered by the cable and satellite companies. Being a ReplayTV owner, I’ve always shied away from using the term “TiVo” or “TiVo’d” in reference to my box or recording. I’m sure my ReplayTV thanks me for that.

The Brandimension study also pointed out that the market doesn’t see TiVo advancing fast enough.

The study also concluded that consumers are growing increasingly concerned with TiVo’s standalone box and its inability to record in HD or two shows simultaneously.

This is probably true in some sense. TiVo and ReplayTV have been stagnate in the field of HD recording innovations. TiVo has one unit that will allow HD recording, but it’s locked up with DirecTV service. ReplayTV, on the other hand, is totally lacking in this area. I’m also not sure if they are developing a HD capable recorder or not.

Both TiVo and ReplayTV should be able to rebound a bit once CableCards become readily available. Then they’ll easily be able to offer HD recording and become the one and only set-top box required. The only problem is getting the cable companies to agree on a standard, but that’s an entirely different ball of wax.

Tags: TiVo, ReplayTV, Television

While I’ve been able to successfully move away from the menial updating tasks in my everyday computing life, I still have to deal with my family and their desire to buy the cheapest Dell they see advertised in the paper on Sunday. I’ve already set my mom up with a good base of spyware removal and blocking tools (AdAware, Spybot and SpywareBlaster), additional firewall software (ZoneAlarm), a virus scanning and removal tool (AVG Anti-Virus) and a more secure browser platform (FireFox of course).

This seems to have kept her secure for the most part; the only real problem with this set up is keeping it up-to-date with patches and new definition files. Usually this takes me an hour or so every month since my mom has no idea how to operate any of this software effectively. The best thing about this is my mom is always nice enough to feed me every time I go over to her house to help with her routine maintenance.

I’m sure there are more “geeks” out there who are, by default, the main tech support facilitator for their families. It’s not a bad thing, but I sometimes find it hard to comprehend that my mom or dad didn’t grow up doing this and they don’t care to learn about it as much as I do. They just want it to work. From here on out, I’m recommending all of my family members buy a Mac when it comes time to upgrade. That will take the burden off me after I set them up initially.

Technorati Tags: Family, Macintosh, Tech Support, Windows

After a quick, five-minute rule explanation while the game was being set up, we jumped right in to the deep end. I was paying with four experienced players, and they were all extremely helpful whenever I had questions. The first three or four turns went by with ease, and I felt like I was sort of holding my own. As soon as we started to hit the mid- to later game I realized how some of my earlier choices were starting to come back to bite me in the ass.

All of the other players had either purchased the wharf, or at least one of the larger buildings by this point in the game, and I was the only one stuck without either. I would’ve had a chance to buy one of these had a passed on a non-essential Large Warehouse purchase. As everyone else was receiving loads of victory points towards the end, my early success quickly disappeared.

After the final round wrapped up, we all started counting up our scores. I brought up the rear with 34 VPs, fourth place scored 40, third had 41, second had 43 (I think) and the first place finisher racked up 47 VPs. Even though I lost pretty badly, I did thoroughly enjoy this game.

I was able to see a few different strategies during this game which allowed me to get an idea of what you need to do to win. The winner went for a more balanced, production and building technique. He used his factory to produce lots of gold which enabled him to build some helpful large buildings during the end game. in contrast, the third place finisher went for a more shipping only technique. This allowed him to get ahead earlier in the game, but he never had the money to get one of the larger buildings to assist at the end of the game.

I guess it’s a good sign that I want to play this again. I feel like this is the type of game that you get much better at after multiple sessions. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to play again soon.

Technorati Tags: Board Games, Puerto Rico

There were also two other games that caught my attention in a few different reports. Those were Fettnapf and Wordwild. Both of those seem like fun, light games that my wife and I would enjoy. I’m sure she’d wipe the floor with me in Wordwild once she got the hang of it. She’s a sucker for word games.

Other than that, I’m sure there will be more games that start to share some of the spotlight soon. The atmosphere at a convention like Spiel doesn’t really suit some games. I’m sure we’ll hear some good things once people get some of the less hyped games home and put them through a good play session with their normal game group. I’m looking forward to hearing the updates.

On a related gaming note, I’m going to be introducing my in-laws to Ticket to Ride this evening. I hope it goes over well. They like to play board games, but they don’t really branch out past the typical American staples. I’m hoping this will give them a taste of what’s out there besides Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly. If all goes well, I plan to convert them to full fledged “Geeks” by Thanksgiving.

Technorati Tags: Board Games, Essen

As for the Titans, they looked very good on the opening drive, and then the Offense shut down again for the rest of the first half. After half-time, there was a bit of renewed energy, but you have to take that success with a grain of salt. It was the Texans who they were playing.

It was also nice to see a positive overall performance by Pacman Jones this week. He played strong defensively all afternoon, and his nice kickoff return sure helped to seal the Texans fate. After his initial growing pains, I think he’ll be a solid player. The fans here in Tennessee will just take awhile to warm up to him.

Astros Win Games 4 and 5 All in the Same Day I can’t believe the Astros and Braves game went 18 innings. I’m sure the Bravos are just sick after losing that one. They all but had the game locked up when Tim Hudson was taken out. The bullpen proceeded to go to all kinds hell and let the Astros back in the ball game. At least Braves fans got to see two games worth of play on Sunday. They shouldn’t be disappointed in that sense.

Fantasy Football Sadness Report Well, this week sure was a doozy. My WR corps took some big hits this week due to injury. Darrell Jackson (Sea) is out for four weeks with a knee injury. Joe Horn (NO) sat out again this week with a hamstring strain. I promoted Kevin Curtis (StL) to the starting WR mix for the week in place of Jackson, but I didn’t know Horn wasn’t going to play. I also picked up Andre Johnson (Hou) off of waivers to fill in my WR/TE slot. Both of those decisions probably ruined my chance at winning this week.

I also had to start Aaron Brooks (NO) this week in pace of Kerry Collins (Oak) who was on a bye. Needless to say Brooks single handedly screwed my team at the most inopportune time. All I wanted out of him was at least 200 yards and a TD, but he played like absolute dog shit. It was pitiful.

I have to see if there is some sort of trade I can work out to get my WR situation under control. In retrospect, I probably should’ve held on to Larry Fitzgerald (Ari) instead of trading him a couple of weeks ago. I figured his production would drop since Kurt Warner (Ari) is out with an injury. I still have a strong RB group, Shaun Alexander (Sea), Domanick Davis (Hou) and Thomas Jones (Chi), and I’ll also get my regular QB back this week. Those things should help me right the ship.

Technorati Tags: MLB, NFL, Fantasy Football, Titans

These Buffalo routers support WDS bridging right out of the box. Set up was a snap. I was up an running in less than 2 hours. I also didn’t have to deal with any command line Linux. That was too much for me. I’ll stick with the little bit I know how to do in Terminal here on Mac OS X.

If you’re looking for a way to wirelessly connect two or more ReplayTVs, then these Buffalo routers are your best bet. I purchased mine at Buy.com for $49.95 a piece (right now they’re $77 each). They are easy to set up, have tons of features and the Buffalo support team is top notch. You can’t go wrong with these.

Technorati Tags: Buffalo Technology, Linksys, ReplayTV

While I was browsing the Ranchero NNW Scripts page, I found a new listing for a del.icio.us and Cocoalicious tagging script. I’ve been using the older Post to del.icio.us script since I started reading my feeds in NNW and I thought it was OK in it’s functionality. Reading about this new script turned me on to Cocoalicious which is an excellent piece of software all Mac owners should have if they use del.icio.us.

This new script allows you to post tagged items to del.icio.us by going through the Cocoalicious interface instead of popping up a browser window. It saves a few seconds this way, and it also allows you to keep your focus on reading your feeds. Now I can see something I think will be handy, post it del.icio.us and keep going through all of my feeds. This script will even post straight out the News Items list. Those are two huge time savers over the previous script.

I love finding more options within a piece of software I use everyday. This makes my investment in NNW worth so much more. Now, as long as this program keeps up it’s stellar track record, I won’t have to worry too much about this rumor currently making it’s way around the Mac Internets. News Gator better not screw this one up. There will be many Mac Zealots who will be royally pissed off if that happens.

Technorati Tags: Applescript, del.icio.us, NetNewsWire, Ranchero, RSS

I guess it has to do with the Bloglines API and it’s limited functionality for adding feeds and lack of groups support. I like to have all of my feeds neatly sorted into different categories so I can decide what topic I want to read next. In order to keep my Bloglines account updated via NNW, I would have to throw all of my groups out the window. I don’t really think I could read my feeds without them at this stage in the game.

The other feature I disliked is the inability to add feeds from NNW to Bloglines. I would really like to see this implemented (if possible) on the API. There are many times when I’m reading a feed and I get linked to a site that is something I would like to add to my collection of feeds. In order to do this with the NNW/Bloglines setup I’d be required to login in to my Bloglines account. Again, this type of workaround is just something so foreign to me now that I’ve been using NNW exclusively.

In all, I commend Ranchero for adding this functionality to NNW. I know they did the best they could with the Bloglines API in it’s current form. Hopefully there will be some increased functionality added to it by the good folks at Bloglines. I still use my Bloglines account when I’m on the go; I just wish I could keep my feeds updated from NNW in a more comfortable manner.

Technorati Tags: Bloglines, NetNewsWire, RSS, Ranchero

I know people on the West Coast (L.A.) were able to see it. I talked to one of my Aussie buddies who just moved out there after the game to confirm it. They were able to see the whole game live and in color. It kind of made me sad. We hooked up someone’s laptop to the HDTV our bar had to see if we could get a feed off of the Internets. The best we could do is getting someone in Oz to point their web cam at the TV to transmit a screen capture of the Television every 3 seconds or so. Combine that with the live audio feed in the Net, and we were in hog heaven.

I asked some of the Australians in attendance at our bar if they ever thought they’d be watching and listening to the Grand Final over the Internet with a delayed web cam feed. They all responded with a definite, “Fuck No!”. I can’t believe Fox didn’t realize this might be a problem. Why couldn’t they reroute the whole country’s feed to another location. That would seem to make more sense.

Technorati Tags: AFL, Grand Final, Footy

Damn, if this wasn’t the best damn season premiere ever. J.J. Abrams gave us just enough to make the season finale seem like it happened just last week. That’s how fast they hooked all of the viewers again. I loved how the first five minutes were of the guy in the hatch. At first your watching and thinking, “Who’s backstory is this? Saywer?” But then they tie it back in with the hatch explosion and you realize watch you’ve just been watching. That’s damn good television.

I guess the producers were right when they said we wouldn’t be disappointed at the Emmy’s. I’ve always thought that this show would be more of a tease than anything else. I mean how much can really go on with 40 people being stranded on an island. I guess I just didn’t have faith in the show’s creators. I’m right there with them now.

Technorati Tags: ABC, Fall Season, Lost, Television

So I went about setting up another DVR in a normal fashion. I purchased another ReplayTV to serve the bedroom, and I also went out and bought two Linksys WRT54G wireless routers. I have heard that it’s easy to upgrade the firmware on the WRT54G, so I figured I would be up and running in no time.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. The problem lies with the fact that all of the latest Linksys routers you can buy at your everyday Best Buy or CompUSA are now Version 4. It seems that very few of the third-party firmware developers support Version 4. The only 2 firmware projects that support what I needed (WDS) are HyperWRT and OpenWRT.

HyperWRT is the most similar to the stock Linksys firmware out of these two. It actually has a web based admin page which makes it very easy to configure. I had to search around for some user based scripts to save in the firmware in order to enable WDS. Unfortunately none of those seemed to operate correctly.

The other firmware, OpenWRT, is an entirely Linux command line utiity. I’ve only just dabbled with Terminal in OS X, so my Linux chops are sorely undeveloped. I have to say getting a baptism by fire in command line Linux use is not a way to spend a weekend, unless of course you like torturing yourself. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning on both Saturday and Sunday poring over OpenWRT documentation trying my damnedest to get the routers to talk to each other.

After fiddling with both routers most of the day on Sunday, I decided that I was just going to reset everything to the default settings and return the routers. I’m going to do what I should of done in the first place when I started the crazy plan, which is buy a Buffalo Airstation WBR2-54GS. It supports WDS right out the box. Sometimes I just have to know when to throw in the towel.

“You win some. You lose some. But you live, you live to fight another day.” - Mr. Jones, Friday

Technorati Tags: Buffalo Technology, HyperWRT, Linksys, Linux, OpenWRT, ReplayTV, WRT54G

I always think the worst when I can’t get to a site. I wish there were more options for broadband access. Unfortunately there isn’t. The Supreme Court obviously didn’t think it was a good idea to deregulate the cable lines. What do they know anyway. They said it was cool for the Government to seize private property so long as someone had a better use for it.

Technorati Tags: Broadband, Comcast, Supreme Court, ReplayTV

P.S. This is also my first post using ecto. I’m trying it out to see if it’s any better than MarsEdit. There are just some weird things MarsEdit does that I don’t like. I figured this was worth a shot.

Technorati Tags: ecto, iPod shuffle, iPod mini, iPod nano, MarsEdit

After quitting Warhammer, I started playing Magic: The Gathering. This was right around the time the Invasion block was rotating in, so it was actually a good time to start up. I played pretty seriously for about a year or so. I went to tournaments, read online strategy guides, and bought singles on eBay. In all, I probably spent over $1000 on that game, and I had a bit of a “Come to Jesus” moment once I realized half the cards I owned weren’t valuable in the Type 2 environment any longer. That’s when I decided that this game wasn’t for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think the game is fun. I love the strategy involved and the different options one has when building a deck. It’s just that I don’t have the desire to dole out that much cash for a hobby. With that said, I’ve been looking into some of the more strategic, German type, board games that are out there. I played Axis & Allies some when I was in college and I always had a great time. So I started browsing around Board Game Geek just to see what’s hot.

As I was browsing over the different Geek Lists, I realized that Ticket to Ride was getting almost universal acclaim. Every review I read billed it as the perfect gateway game. The gameplay mechanics are simple, yet it still provides enough depth strategically to challenge each player. I’ve now played it 2 times offline with my wife, and 2 times online. I have to agree that this is an excellent game. It’s not bogged down by unwieldy rules interpretations, and the game flows smoothly from beginning to end. The only thing bad about this game is the fact that it’s a gateway game. It has introduced me to a whole new world of gaming. The only good thing is that this gaming hobby is nowhere near as expensive as Magic or Warhammer.

Technorati Tags: Board Games, Magic, Ticket to Ride, Warhammer 40k

It took us awhile to finally decide which Mac we wanted to buy. In the end, we decided to go with the Mac mini 1.42 Ghz G4. Luckily they had just been “updated”, so we got the Airport and Bluetooth built-in. It was a real hard decision on whether to get the mini or the iMac G5.

I like the power and specs of the iMac, but I didn’t want to get locked into having the screen and machine all-in-one. Plus, the G5 processor has a bit of reduced life expectancy with Apple’s current move towards an all Intel based product line. I know it will take a few years for the transition to be complete, but I’ll be able to make the move to the Intel line of Macs sooner since I bought a mini.

All in all, the Mac mini is a wonderful machine. I would’ve loved to purchase a Dual G5 Power Mac, but for the size, the mini can’t be beat. Out of the box if provides enough juice for most of your basic computing tasks, Internet browsing, email, or word processing. It’s not going to blow you away. I am planning on upgrading the RAM to 1 GB and adding a 7200 RPM Hard Drive. Both of those additions should boost the performance of this machine by about 40%. I am also going to ad an internal DVD burner. I could’ve paid $100 at the start, but I would’ve been stuck with a 4x burner.Installing it myself nets me a 8x burner. That’s worth it in my book.

Mac mini 1.42 Ghz: 8.75/10

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to spend all of my money on gas for a 4-hour trip. I’d like to be able to have some fun while I’m down there. I also don’t want to get in a situation where I’m stuck somewhere without gas. I don’t think there’ll be a shortage, but you never know with the way the local news media across the country is sensationalizing these stories.

With that said, I’d like to think that I’m not going to let something like this affect my plans. This is America, and we do what we God damn please no matter what. I guess I can always rely on the old standby, the credit card.

Here’s the latest, head-scartching example. Is it that difficult to remember where you parked. I know sometimes it seems like the lot goes on for miles, but it’s common sense people. All of these tips are things I would hope most normal people would think of on their own.

Whew, am I glad that I was able to drop him from my fantasy team when this first happened! I had a feeling he would be out longer than expected. I got an excellent pitcher in return, John Patterson of the Nationals, who’s been pitching great for the past month. I had to give up the Orioles Miguel Tejada, but I received Michael Young of the Rangers in return

All in all I think I’ve come out on top so far.

Update: Halladay is now out for the season. Boy am I glad I made this trade. Now all I have to do is sneak into the playoffs.

I bet the Ravens are going to be laughing all the way to the bank if they re-sign Boulware. His cap number should be much more manageable now they he’s “tested” the waters. Plus, he won’t have to learn a new system.

It’s probably win/win for both parties. Boulware will get a one-year deal and a chance to prove to all of those haters out there what he’s really worth. I’m still shocked that he’s on the market.

(Via ESPN.com.)

ESPN cancels a great series in Playmakers a couple of years ago, but they pick up this craptacular show. This type of asinine functioning in entertainment drives me nuts. Does anyone really care about a boxing reality show?

This week has been insane here at work. Too much to do and not enough time to do it. Things should settle down and I’ll return to my normal activity.

I will probably do a little bit more modifying of this theme, but right now I’m still trying to learn the basics of both WordPress and CSS. I’m just glad I was able to do what I did.

If this rumor turns out to be true in the next couple of months, I’ll be first in line to buy one of these devices. I don’t want to miss out on this. I waited too long to get into the iPod game, and I don’t want to make the same mistake twice. I’ve been looking into a portable video player, but nothing has caught my eye just yet.

Hopefully Apple will work out the DRM so it’s not so terrible. It would be nice to have no DRM, but that shit a’int gonna happen. We have to take the good with the bad. I just hope Apple is smart enough to let people play any kind of compatible video on this sucker. It would be nice if they partnered up with TiVo to allow TiVo to Go files on the vPod.

I have a feeling this is Apple’s next step. Why would iTunes support video playback and RSS feeds from video blogs? Plus, the market for portable video players is wide open. Whenever Apple brings a product into this segment, average consumers will start to buy in to this lifestyle change.

Cleaning and Stain Removal

Technorati Tags: cleaning, household, kitchen, lifehacks, tips