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In: Home Theater
With: 6 Comments

I was performing a search on Google Images and noticed a picture of my flat panel TV install, which I detailed in this post. The funny thing was that the image wasn’t hosted on my server. I was surprised that the installer not only was using a copy of my image, but was also claiming to have performed the installation.  Here’s a PDF of the webpage. This demonstrates questionable ethics, by the web designer if not by the company itself. Update: An employee of the business contacted me.  Their web designer used the photo without permission from the business owner, who didn’t monitor the siteRead More →

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In: Life Reflections
With: 2 Comments

The Album: For the past couple of weeks, I anticipated the arrival of the latest Dave Matthews Band album: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. For the first time since I was in college, I sat down in a dark room and listened to an entire album, start to finish, with no interruptions. For the first time in 11 years, I think Dave Matthews Band has released a great studio album. The album starts off with a beautiful, haunting saxophone solo by LeRoi Moore. I was overcome with sadness, realizing at all that was lost musically and otherwise, when he passed away last year. ButRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 11 Comments

I’ve created stand-alone clips for demos in my home theater.  Instead of switching discs and skipping chapters, I’ve created/edited video files that are stored on my media server and played-back using a Home Theater Personal Computer. I think the ideal demo scene is comprised of the following: lots of action some setup before the action so viewer isn’t lost or thrown-into the action too abruptly some humor and of course, great audio and video Here are some of my favorite demo scenes. Most are edited clips taken from my Blu-ray disc backups, but some are (still) standard-def versions from DVD backups. Serenity: Firefly takes onRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 2 Comments

I’ve been a TiVo user since 2001 and I’ve owned 7 TiVos. It’s a great product because it is extremely easy to use yet offers an impressive array of features.  However, I think TiVo can offer even more functionality without compromising, and perhaps improving, the simplicity of the user experience.  Here are my ideas: Seamless multi-room experience: I want every TiVo in the house to display the exact same recording content even though it’s distributed across multiple boxes. Single Season Pass / To Do List: I don’t want to manage Season Passes on each TiVo, I want them to talk to each other and comeRead More →

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In: Reviews
With: 3 Comments

I purchased a MSI Wind netbook (i.e. small, cheap laptop) for my wife to use as her personal surfing-the-internet device. Overall, I’m very pleased with the performace and size, making it perfect for casual use.  Here are my pros and cons lists: Pros: Small Size: I knew this was going to be a tiny little PC, but I was still surprised by the diminutive size when I took it out of the box.  The Wind can be packed away in pretty much any bag and you don’t even know it’s there. Nice Appearance: The glossy black plastic looks quite nice for a PC in thisRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 6 Comments

I received an e-mail from Netflix today informing me of yet another price increase, due to the fact that I rent Blu-ray movies. I was paying $11.99 for 2-discs-at-a-time and 4 rentals per month. And this did include the Watch Now online viewing. But over the past few months, Netflix removed the Watch Now from this plan, created a $1 fee to rent Blu-ray movies, and then changed it to a $2 fee monthly fee to rent Blu-ray movies. So two price increases (from $11.99 to $13.99/month) and one feature removal (no online steaming.) Is this enough to get me to leave Netflix? No. I’veRead More →

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In: Wordpress
With: 5 Comments

I just implemented a new theme on my WordPress website. I’ve been wanting a new design for well over a year but couldn’t find what I wanted: a simple design with lots of subtle transparency, rounded corners, and a simple color pallet. Then I found the Aeros theme (created by Joe at TheBuckMaker.com blog) and it provided a great starting point — but some modifications were required. I started off by prepping my site content for the new theme. Using the P2Pconverter extension, I converted many of the old and outdated pages into posts to unclutter the top page navigation bar. Unfortunately, WordPress does notRead More →

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In: Home Theater, Reviews
With: 2 Comments

I just unboxed and installed my Vudu XL evaluation unit, connected it to the flat panel TV in my family room, and started played around with it.  Here are my initial thoughts: This is a very nice looking set top box; possibly the most attractive design I’ve seen, with lots of glossy, high-quality plastic. The bottom of the unit even has a nice textured pattern on it. It’s unexpectedly heavy.  This is not a thin sheet metal enclosure with a tiny circuit board inside.  It feels solid, dense, and well constructed. It passed my easy of installation test: I didn’t need to consult the installRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 11 Comments

I installed the Windows 7 beta (32-bit) on my wife’s MSI Wind netbook with great success.  In fact, it was flawless.  So I decided to give it a try on the second Media Center computer (HTPC) that I just finished building using the 64-bit version.  My results were as positive this time.  Here a summary of why Win7 Beta didn’t work for me on my HTPC: Drivers. The drivers for the motherboard (Nvidia 9400) wouldn’t install from Windows Update and were over a month old.  (At least I was able to install the latest drivers on the Nvidia website.) Lockups. The PC locked up twiceRead More →

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In: Events & Travel
With: 0 Comments

I was sitting at work wishing I could go somewhere for lunch and watch the inauguration. Then I went to CNN.com to see if I could catch a live stream. I was surprised that a Facebook application popped up beside the video and I was able to view my friend’s comments in real time. It was like watching with friends even though I was sitting alone in my cube. A very plesant surprise – well done CNN!Read More →