Category: Gadgetology

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gadgetology

Media, mutts, mercy!

The living room media PC project continues; installing Nero has solved a lot of problems; stuff that was playing with no audio is now playing with full audio. Yay! There are still some kinks to work out in getting theWindows audio/speaker settings, Nero’s audio output settings, and the living room’s occasionally baffling Dolby Pro Logic receiver to cooperate with each other, but that’s a job best left to the A/V engineer in the family…oh, wait. I guess that’d be me. I did conquer the mystery of why MP3s weren’t streaming from Zen (turns out the m3u playlist files use relative file locators instead of absolute ones – i.e., if the playlist is for an album contained in my “ELO” directory, the playlist entries are actualy “../elo/*.mp3” rather than the full network address leading to the right machine, the right drive, and the right branch of my directory bonsai tree. Obviously that’s not gonna get you jack from another computer – it has to be called up song-by-song. This is just a wee bit of a pain in the butt…but, as usual, I have – as they say – a cunning plan.

In the meantime, while my friends in Oklahoma and Missouri have been digging themselves out of a fresh glacier that’s been dumped on their heads since this time a week ago, we’ve just been getting rained on. A lot. This has resulted in, somewhat predictably, a very soggy dog. I let her in tonight and wrapped a towel around her so she could dry off somewhere other than all over the living room carpet. Lo and behold, she actually kept it on while she ate her specially prepared dinner consisting of dog food and, from last night’s dinner (ours, not hers), green beans and ostrich steak juice. Yum.

Xena chows down

Xena later wolfed down another bonus helping of “human food”, some leftover scrambled eggs. Actually, saying she wolfed it down is underselling it a bit. I thought she was just going to eat the damn plate the way she was going after it. We have a kitty who loves biscuits, a dog who likes eggs, and I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a cat here who doesn’t like a bit of bacon. Smart money says the dog would make quick work of any available sausage too. Breakfast is therefore served here at one’s own risk. (We also have a cat here who likes dog food. I’ll let you guess who.)

And what’s Evan doing during all of his dog-drying and media meddling? He’s workin’ that binky, of course.

Bink bink bink bink bink

Evan has started making this great gurgling/burbling/rolling-R sound (and he’s not even Scottish!). If I can just teach him to say “Mercy!” before doing his rolling-R thing, then look out, Roy Orbison.… Read more

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Gadgetology

Randomly blithering platitudes unto the heavens

After all the hubbub a few days ago about “OMG, I’m gonna buy/build a media center PC!”, I finally realized that if I tweaked the settings on my wife’s slightly decrepit laptop, it would happily be the hub of that operation. There are a few kinks yet to be worked out with this system, but thus far it’s working…kinda okay. As Flack pointed out, streaming is not gonna happen over a wireless network, especially not one with as much activity as mine sees at any given moment, so video files have to be copied to the laptop’s hard drive…which takes about as much time. It’s not quite the instant access thing I was envisioning – this is more like having to prepare food that’ll take an hour to cook. Probably still going to put Nero on there though – it’s just my favorite video app for a variety of reasons. And I think we’ll still be wanting, at the very least, an IR add-on mouse. As it is right now, if you even so much as need to pause the thing, you virtually have to hug the entertainment center to reach the laptop to do that. The running joke around the house is that I’m the most reliable remote control that my wife has, but for now, that’ll do – I remember some saying about beggars and choosers, or maybe it was a saying about po’ folks, that seems to apply here.

If only all of my “I’m gonna do this someday” goals fell together this quickly.… Read more

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Gadgetology

Media monster…or…mobster…or…lobster. Or somethin’.

Tuning in, turning on, and logging outAfter hearing about Flack’s PIVO experiment, and having seen a similar setup of Kent’s working for the past year and a half or so, I’ve decided that we really need something similar here. With all the UK shows that I download, and having sucked all of the music in the house onto my hard drive, this whole business of hauling shiny round things from room to room is a bit of a dinosaur’s game. So I’ve started laying out in my head what I need for the living room media PC: … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Gadgetology

Dad’s day off

Tuesdays are my wife’s day off, so about half the time they wind up being my day off from Evan. I feel like a bit of a heel for looking forward to Tuesdays. My wife has the baby most of any given Sunday, but that’s because I’m off at the farm working my butt off – not much of a day off for daddy. I love my kid, but it’s kinda nice having a day to myself once a week. His mom has hauled him into town for a pediatrician’s visit (normal) and his first round of shots (which I don’t think he’s gonna like). Then she’s got some other stops to make – and quite frankly, I think those have everything to do with showing the little guy off. 😆

In today’s “this day X years ago” posts, this topic cropped up, and I thought I’d go and take a look at what my music directory is like now, two years later. Survey says…about 120 gigabytes! Of nothing but music/audio! That’s almost exactly 1/3 of my main PC’s hard drive. Good Lord. This is part of why, the last time I was at Kent’s place and saw his Western Digital external drive, I’ll admit I popped a bit of a woody. That thing is nice, and it’s a RAID drive to boot (pitiful pun intended). Needless to say, that’s gone right onto the old wish list (right up there with the Wii I’m never gonna get at this rate :-P). Here’s hoping Santa think I’ve been a really good daddy this year. 😯

That’s all I’ve got in my brain right now. (Ain’t much, I know.)… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Critters Gadgetology Home Base

The Baby Monitor and other tales

After much complaining about our complete and utter lack of one, my wife finally got a baby monitor Sunday, and I immediately set about plugging it in and putting all the pieces in place. This has been incredibly handy to have around because, as I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned a time or two, having the Avid gear up and running is like having an airplane idling right next to you. If Evan’s down for a nap between feedings, and starts getting fidgety, I’m not going to hear it until he’s at a full-bore wail. Which probably means he’s woken his mom and I’m in really deep trouble. So a baby monitor isn’t an “oh, that would be nice” for me; it’s an “I need this.”

Abou the only drawback is that I get to listen to Evan FM all night – the aforementioned mix CD of baby music that I made for him. Good thing I like most of that stuff. But so far, it’s worked great. There’s just one little drawback. 1 night = 1 9-volt battery. Ugh.

Evan in the hood
Fig. 1 – Evan in the hood. … Read more

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Critters Gadgetology Home Base Should We Talk About The Weather? Television & Movies

Of dogs, storms, and really amateurish artwork

We had a pretty loud storm tonight, but there was more fanfare about it on TV than there was actual storm. (It had raised all kinds of hell in Tulsa, though, so it was worth at least watching the TV coverage to keep an eye on it.) One big clap of thunder woke Evan up. This was also one of the first times in months that Xena came into the house. I’ve gotten to where I let her sit out rainstorms out on the side deck, but when we’re talking hail and worse, yeah, I’m a softie, the dog gets to come in. Naturally, she crashed out, Olivia played with her tail, Obi slept next to her, and she stood guard over Evan. Everybody loves the little guy.

Today was one of those days where I just didn’t have the brainpower to do anything useful, and was leaving the Avid powered down for the whole day (the first tornado watch was popped on us before noon), so I did a little bit of just-for-the-sheer-heck of it design work, and joined the ranks of those who do fan-made Doctor Who DVD covers. Rather than do the 37th cover for some well-known episode that hasn’t even officially been released yet, however, or a “fantasy football” cover for a lost story, I decided to go way off the beaten path: I thought I’d do a DVD cover for a fan film. I altered the basic template a bit and added the now-standard “From the world of BBC-TV’s Doctor Who…” wording that accompanies spinoff productions like Big Finish’s Dalek Empire audios, and came up with this:

Daemos Rising DVD cover

(You can download the full-res printable version here. The nifty 3-D mockup abo0ve was generated by an insanely useful program called Imandix Cover, which you can download free here.) While I’m happy with the intent of the artwork, the actual execution is just a bit crap – since it was all done with screencaps from the DVD itself, the main artwork, when you look at it really close up, is very pixellated. Still, I’d like to think I wasn’t a zillion miles off stylistically; I’ve posted it to the forums at Outpost Gallifrey, where I’m sure that my assessment of “crap” may be confirmed very quickly. 😆 But not to be dissuaded, I’m already working on another cover, this time for a series of irreverent “I Love The ’80s”-style documentary segments that aired in 2003. So if I want to burn these to DVD, I can put a cover on the DVD that’ll look something like:

Who @ 40 Weekend DVD cover

I tried to be a little more…well…artistic with this one. K-9 and the time vortex are screen grabs, while the TARDIS is a 3-D model that I rendered myself. I’d like to tackle Shakedown: Return Of The Sontarans soon, just because…well…it’d be kinda relevant at the moment. 😉 For giggles, I ran my old Countdown To Looking Glass cover through Imandix, which didn’t like the dimensions and chopped some of the artwork off:

Countdown To Looking Glass DVD cover

…oops. Guess I need to take that one back to the drawing board before I go too far into Who territory. Though ironically, I still like the CTLG artwork better than either of the Who pieces.

Also on my to-do list: an official Doctor Who DVD cover for Olivia vs. the Dalek. 😆… Read more

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Critters Gadgetology ToyBox

Video production, diaper changes, weddings, parties, anything

We’re diverse around here like that. I have a humorous gadget story to tell, on the day after the latest Mid South Gaming Get Together up at Brian’s (icbrkr) place. On the occasion of the first such get-together, in December 2004, Flack festooned us both with copious garage sale and thrift store finds. One of the goodies he gave me was this Radio Shack sound FX generator, complete in the box with instructions, AC adapter and everything. In fact…let me check the ol’ server…yep, here’s the original picture I took at the time:

Sound FX generator

I distinctly remember him saying that he had snagged this for a buck at a yard sale, had no use for it, and so here it was, mine for the taking. The really funny thing about it? This bought-for-a-buck-at-a-yard-sale piece of electronic fun, given to me for nothing, is now a vital cog in the video production wheel around here:

Sound FX generator … Read more

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Gadgetology Home Base ToyBox

Tales of the Tape(s)

It seems as though the universe is conspiring to raise my blood pressure enough to make me sick before I can make it to CGE this weekend. Let’s see…

  • The baby room – still not finished. Probably won’t be by the time I go, though I had set that as a goal for myself to get done before I leave.
  • Right foot – still killing me. Now my heel is causing me an incredible amount of pain, which makes a certain amount of sense because I’ve been keeping the weight off my toes, but what doesn’t make sense is this amount of pain suddenly hitting me overnight – literally. I went to bed and the heel felt fine. I woke up this morning and I could barely walk. I have serious concerns about getting around like this in Vegas.
  • Tapes for CGE. I won two eBay auctions for 10 tapes each on July 8th & 9th from the same seller. Paid promptly by Paypal on the 12th. They hadn’t gotten here by Monday of this week, and I have to leave for CGE on Friday morning, so I started raising hell – first by e-mail, then by messages through eBay, with no response. Finally I filed a Paypal dispute requesting a refend and suddenly the guy starts talking (amazing, innit?). I requested a refund specifically because it’ll take me more than $54 to purchase 20 blank miniDV tapes at retail locally by Friday morning. And so naturally, the guy shipped by USPS, today, and sent a tracking number, at last. Guess what, jack? They’re still not going to get here in time. Avoid “daytrading1” on eBay at all costs. By contrast, a step-up ring I ordered on Monday of this week is already here.
  • The “honey do” list. I know I’ve got a lot of stuff to do, but there’s this sudden bum rush of things to do right before I go, and there’s a not-so-little voice in the back of my head that’s just screaming BACK OFF.

I guess I’m getting just a little bit cranky. I know I have lots of stuff I need to accomplish, and as I used to tell a certain TV station owner back in the days when he used to call me up at the station and go on endless tirades about changing luma and chroma settings on the time base corrector, “Bill, I can either do something about it, or I can talk to you about it. Pick one.” (That right there happens to be the kind of quality people skills that keep you in broadcasting for 17 years; if you get even crankier than that, you can escape sooner! 😆 )

By the way, I got pictures this morning of the litter of kittens that our little grey house guest had a while back, and they’re just adorable. I want them all, snuggled up on my pillow, stat. Lucky for them, my niece has already fallen in love with two of them, and I may have found a home for another one or two of them. They’re adorable. I’ll try to post the pictures here before I go to Vegas.

I’m looking forward to the Expo in a big way – this is kind of like my last hurrah with the gang, with Rob, Brian, Paul, Charles and, geez, just about everyone else going. Mat’s bringing me a Face of Boe (everybody should have one!), and I secretly hope he catches video of the TSA screeners puzzling over that one once he’s in the country. 😆 Many years ago, coming back from Promax ’98 in Toronto, I learned that declaring a squeeze toy to customs is a one-way ticket to getting oneself questioned for at least 30 seconds (and keep in mind, this was pre-9/11), so I’m going to enjoy this far too much. It’s a disembodied head from the distant future, and it’s got a recommended retail price of about 15 quid, more or less. (And the great thing is, technically, I already have cats hanging around to tend to it, no additional action figures required. Or maybe not so much tend to it as bat at the little dangly bits.) I’m going to set him up on a shelf in the game room where he can sit and have a conversation with the Ambassador Kosh figure all day.

Hopefully everybody dug the video feature and gobs of pictures I took for this week’s toy review. I’ll admit, I couldn’t help but mess with everyone’s minds by putting the old ’80s TARDIS console off in the background in some shots. And Homsar. (Actually, for anyone who’s been reading the toy reviews since the beginning of this year, Homsar’s gotten to be something of a recurring in-joke. Admit it, he just looks cool riding shotgun in a twin-pod cloud car.)

I’ll try to do some blogging from the Expo this weekend, though it may be pretty brief; I did a “test run” of everything this past weekend when I set up cameras for the baby shower, and it all worked just fine, so we’re set. Even though it’s going to be a working vacation…I’m still more than ready for it to begin, provided my head hasn’t exploded before I can pack my suitcase and make my escape.… Read more

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Critters Gadgetology Home Base

Step up to the plate

It was a busy weekend this weekend, what with the baby shower and all, so I haven’t had much time for bloggage lately. I’ve also been preparing for the CGE trip, which is…this weekend! I can hardly wait. I’ve got a couple dozen blank tapes on order that should arrive any day now, and I’ve also procured a fisheye lens, which I’ve wanted for about, oh, 20 years, ever since my grandfather let me try out the one he was using. I just wanted to take that thing home then and there. 😆 But…there’s just one catch. I had to put a step-up ring on one of my cameras to try it out…and now the damned step-up ring is stuck. You cannot get that thing to budge at all. Apparently the threads misaligned or something, and now it’s on there. Which means I’ll have to put a step-down ring on it at some point to make it compatible with the other stuff I have (telephoto, wide-angle, etc.). As a result, that camera is also now incompatible with its own lens cover. Go figure. Worse yet, I have to get another step-up ring to use the fisheye on anything else. (The fisheye isn’t stuck, just the adapter ring.)

No problem, right? I’ll just call Bedford Camera & Video, literally the only thing in the local phone book for photography supplies, right? I mean, a step-up ring is just about the most common thing in the world, short of film or tape or batteries, that I could possibly be after……right?

Wrong. Fine upstanding pillars of the community they may be, they don’t have any step-up rings that are “that small”, and they don’t carry any cameras with filter threads that small. But they do carry a full line of Nikon™® accessories compatible with their full range of Nikon™® digital and film cameras, so would I be interested in one of those? “No,” I responded, “because I’m not using a Nikon.” Then it sunk in – they were trying to tack the sale of a multi-hundred dollar camera on to a customer’s call about a two-buck step-up ring. 🙄 I mean, I’m sure the person on the other end of the phone was just doing his job, but the conversation wound up revolving so much around their line of Nikon™® equipment that the whole point of me calling was lost. Pffffft. I ordered the step-up ring I needed from an online distributor with second-day shipping. Because there’s literally nowhere else to go in this area for anything more than the most basic photography/video supplies…and if you go there, you’d better be ready to talk about Nikon™®’s fine products.

Sheer desperation has set in at home as far as where to put boxes of stuff that are coming out of the baby room:
Pac-Boxes
That’s a bunch of boxes, stacked on the slanted back/top of the Kick machine, covered in a Pac-Man bedsheet. 😆 Well, hey, it kinda fits the game room decor…I thought I had found a new home for the machine itself, but that prospect appears to have evaporated as quickly as it appeared.

Here’s Xena through the fisheye lens:
Xena
Xena

I love the fisheye lens. I promise that I won’t shoot absolutely everything with it, but it’s really handy to have the option of getting that wide an angle, even if it makes my dog look a little weird.

Today’s entry has been brought to you by Nikon™® and your friendly local Nikon™® dealer. 😛… Read more