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In: Automotive, Events & Travel
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I finally have something to talk about that is automotive-related. It started out as the best F1 USGP weekend I’d had. I’ve attended all of the previous races but this was the first year I took advantages of the activities surrounding the race. The police-escorted drive sponsored by Porsche Club of America through downtown was blissful. The drive to the track was effortless. The concourse parking on the unused back straightway of the track was not only convenient but also a display of some of the best road-going sports cars ever produced. The walk to our seats though the winding golf course was pleasant. ThenRead More →

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In: Concerts
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A new album and re-found energy. Dave Matthews Band seems refreshed. As always, Grey Street was fantastic. Smooth Rider was a bit boring. You Might Die Trying is an awesome live song that sounds similar to live version some under-appreciated songs from the Everyday album. Louisiana Bayou sounds like one of the few songs from the new album that has long-term live show/fan appreciation potential; Robert Randolph owned this song. All Along the Watchtower as the finale – classic Dave Matthews Band closer. Setlist: Dave Matthews Band June 13, 2005 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN American Baby G1 The Stone G1 Best of What’sRead More →

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In: Tech
With: 2 Comments

The repair of the cracked screen on my Treo 650 is not going well. I paid PalmOne $190 to send in my phone and have it repaired. I was supposed to receive and e-mail from them with shipping instructions, but it never came (and no, it was not a problem with the spam blocking software on my mail server — I checked). I check the status of the repair and it says “e-mail sent”. There is no way to have it re-sent, there is no contact information, e-mail address, phone number, or anything. So I’ve basically paid $190 for a repair order number with noRead More →

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In: Home Theater
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As I mentioned previously in my blog, I purchased two network home music players: a Roku SoundBridge M2000 and a Sonos Digital Music System Bundle. I used both for a couple of weeks with the objective being a winner-take-all comparison where one is kept and the other is returned. A brief summary of the detailed results is posted below: Setup: Sonos wins by a moderate margin; neither was excessively difficult but the Sonos was less confusing. Music Format Support: Roku wins by a small margin because of WMA DRM support. Search: Roku wins by a large margin. The Roku is that it gives detailed songRead More →

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In: Tech
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Most people seem to forget that there is a free option to the Verizon high-speed data plan that uses your minutes but otherwise is free. It’s called QNC and it operates at 14.4 kbps speeds, which is fine for infrequent use. Here are the details for enabling this feature, based on info from this thread on TreoCentral Forums: From the Palm main screen, select Preferences and then select Network Hit the menu drop-down key, select New Enter the following settings: Service: QNC Connection: Virtual Modem User Name: qnc Password: qnc Phone: #777 Details… –> Advanced… –> Modify –> Script… Send: at$qcmdr=2 Send CR: Send at$qcqnc=1Read More →

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In: Home Theater
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I’m in the midst of figuring out how to get music from my computer to my house and my car. There are so many formats, codecs, and DRM systems that it has been difficult for me to pick the best format. I started with 128kbps fixed bit rate mp3, then went to ~220kbps Variable Bit Rate mp3, and then tried DRM-protected WMA files downloaded from MusicMatch, and finally WMA Lossless. Of these, the VBR mp3 seems to be the most universal and offers great sound, though it is a lossy format. Looking at the devices I will probably be using, FLAC (free lossless audio codec)Read More →

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In: Home Theater
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I’ve been using MusicMatch Jukebox as my main media player for at least 5 years now and I purchased a lifetime upgrade long ago. Today, I’ve decided to abandon it for several reasons. First of all, I found a bug that can delete music files when using the supertagging feature. I lost half of two different albums and music management software should never do that. Secondly, I’ve purchased about 100 DRM-protected songs from them. Many of these song are mis-tagged and there is no way for me to edit the tags. For example, some are “Norah Jones” and some are “Jones, Norah” and want themRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 2 Comments

Let the music player testing begin. I’ve decided it’s time to get the music off of my PC and into the rest of the house where it can be enjoyed. I’m having a tough time deciding which player to buy; I’d narrowed it down to the Roku SoundBridge M2000 and the Sonos ZonePlayer but couldn’t decide based on features alone, so I ordered both. The winner will stay and the looser will be returned. I also considered the SlimDevices SqueezeBox2 but it is basically the same as the Roku without any support for WMA DRM-protected files that I purchased, so I marked it off myRead More →

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In: Tech
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I had always hated carrying my Treo 650 in my shirt pocket. It falls out much too easily any time I would bend over for anything. This time, I just happened to be leaning over a piece of cast iron. I just ordered a belt holster despite my wife basically forbidding me to do so because it “looks terrible on your belt”. Maybe it does, but it doesn’t look as terrible as a screen that is cracked into 5 pieces with a space bar that doesn’t function. I have no option other than returning it to PalmOne and having it repaired for a fee ofRead More →

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In: Life Reflections
With: 2 Comments

I thought my wife Nicole was dead. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. It was late on a Saturday night and she was taking a bath before going to bed. I walked into the bathroom and found her motionless with her head tilted forward, with both her mouth and nose under water. I ran over to her, lifted her head, and shouted her name very loudly several times and she did not respond. My mind started flying through the scenario. I knew she could not have been in the tub for more than 5 minutes and that I needed to startRead More →