By:
In: Home Theater
With: 2 Comments

I’ve been wanting to post a photo album on my website for a few years now. I finally got around to doing it. For now, there are just pictures of my 2 home theater projects. The pictures cover the projects from start-to-finish (well, almost finished, I’m not quite done with the latest). My first home theater was in my first house and was more of a media room because it was in a huge basement room with a bar and pool table. Nicole and I moved about a year and a half ago and went with a dedicated home theater for version 2.0. I stillRead More →

By:
In: Wordpress
With: 0 Comments

I have several WordPress plug-ins installed and working. Unfortunately, WordPress does not yet have a decent site to list, rank, vote on, and download plugins. Here are a few that I’m using: Archivist – displays older posts on the front page that would otherwise be lost in the archives Subscribe Me – adds news reader subscription links to the sidebar on the right WP-TinyMCE – WYSIWYG editor that works for both main posts and comments ChenPress – Another WYSIWYG editor. This one based on FCK editor. Does not work with comments as far as I can tell. I’m comparing it to WP-TinyMCE to figure outRead More →

By:
In: Web
With: 8 Comments

I’ve converted my blog from blogger.com format to WordPress. My initial thoughts are that WordPress is much more customizable and powerful. If you have have your own webhost and know how to ftp files to your server, floowing the installation instructions at wordpress.org will result in a much better blogging experience, especially if you like to tinker!Read More →

By:
In: Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

After working on it for several weeks, I finally finished my guide for audiophile-quality extraction of music from CDs. To get the best possible audio quality, it is necessary to have bit-perfect extraction from the CD (with no unnecessary error correction trying to reconstruct misreads due to CD drive offset). Then, the perfectly-extracted audio should be compressed using a lossless format to maintain the original quality. The guide shows how to use setup and use some free programs to do this: EAC, FLAC, and AccurateRip. To be honest, I’m not positive I could identify the difference between a “regular” extraction and a bit-perfect extraction, andRead More →

By:
In: Tech
With: 5 Comments

I’ve built my new desktop computer / server and now have it up an running. It’s been 4 years since my last PC, so it was time for an upgrade. The biggest advantages of the new computer are a dual-core processor, a super-quiet case, and a RAID hard drive controller card that provides protection against drive failures and lets me add disks to the array to make one huge drive. Biggest advantage: all of my movies stored on my network, so that I can use the PC in my basement to browse and play movies. Just like TiVo, only with a better looking interface (WindowsRead More →

By:
In: Automotive, Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

I finally took the first step in getting my music collection back into my car. I used to listen to CD’s all the time when I had my Pioneer 6-disc changer and a bunch of cartridges. However, after my headunit when bad, I had no changer and starting listening more to the radio. Today, I ordered a PhatNoise PhatBox for my Infiniti. If all goes well, I’ll probably get one for my other vehicles as well. I was seriously considering the Omnifi devices (with openfi add-on) because of WiFi synchronization, but decided on the PhatBox because of FLAC support, OEM headunit interface, and voice promptsRead More →

By:
In: Web
With: 1 Comment

I’ve setup a petition to get the GPL software for the Rockford Omnifi media players released. The petition is available here. It’s currently up to about 250 signatures. Hopefully slashdot will pick this up and it will get some more publicity. SimpleDevices, who is responsible for the software on the omnifi, appears to be the company with the unreleased GPL source code.Read More →

By:
In: Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

Two weekends ago, I attended my 4th and final CEDIA Expo to see all of the great new home theater gear. I love going because all of the latest gear is there and experts, and even the designers themselves, are often there to display the equipment. Unfortunately, it will probably be my last CEDIA because the show has grown to be too large for the Indy Convention Center. At least there is a convention center expansion planned, but it won’t be ready until next decade. This was the best CEDIA I attended as far as new product goes. It topped CEDIA 2001, where all ofRead More →

By:
In: Home Theater
With: 21 Comments

Overview I purchased network home music players from both Roku SoundBridge M2000 and a Sonos Digital Music System Bundle, with the objective being a winner-take-all comparison where one is kept and the other is returned. I’ve completed my evaluation and the results are below. Roku SoundBridge M2000 vs. Sonos Digital Music System Setup The Sonos system was easier to setup than the Roku. However, the Sonos did require a wired network connection. The advantage is that no wireless network configuration is necessary because the Sonos uses its own encrypted wireless network from that device to every other one in your house. The Roku, however, didRead More →

By:
In: Tech
With: 0 Comments

Palm needs to get their act together. FedEx attempted to deliver my Treo 650 on Thursday, July 30 even though their website says it is still in repair and will not be shipped until July 12. At least I have it. They fixed the screen and the keyboard key. However, a note was included stating that the modem could not be programmed properly and that I would not be charged for the repair. My initial thought was: “Great! No charge!” Then I tired to use my phone. It crashed / rebooted continuously as soon as I turned the phone on. I noticed that they installedRead More →