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April 28, 2006
Hey Look. It's My Long Lost Cousins
Posted by Me at 06:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New Laptop or Tablet PC?
So, I'm about due for a new laptop with a lil more umph.
Mines been pretty good so far, but I think I need to do more with it.
I need something small for source review on the trains, yet functional to do VMWARE type of things.
I'm torn between a decent refurbished Compaq EVO N800C (2.4GHZ) 14" or a very small Fujitsu Notebook and Tablet style PC.
The Fuji is so very small and cute although No CD and it will cost 2X the amount.. hmmmm.
Ultra Portable, or Ultra Powerful?
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4089931
http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/PrdBridge.jsp?pclass=P1500
Although this model has some merit too.
http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/PrdBridge.jsp?pclass=T4
Posted by Me at 03:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
J & R Music World Haul
Joe Satriani - Super Colossal (didn't know this was out, Thanks to Alien for the heads up!)
David Gilmour - On an Island (didn't know about this either).
So far I've heard the Satch, It's classic Satch with Melodic Leads, Catchy Drums.
Seems a bit toned down from what I remember of Satch. Good, not as electrifying as some older tunes.
Maybe a few more listens will peak my interest. Maybe a headphone listening session on the trains will change it.
I'm kinda curious about the David Gilmour, this should be interesting.. Stay tuned.
Posted by Me at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 24, 2006
Hey Pay your Taxes!
Ok Probably in poor taste, but it sure made me laugh for a moment.
On a serious note the whole concept of this joke has always bothered me.
I don't mind contributing to this great country, However, the rate at which I'm reamed, along with the people who leech off the system has always been a sore spot.
Posted by Me at 05:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 17, 2006
Pipe Cleaner Dancer
Y'all gotta try this one LOL!!!!
http://www.davidbessler.com/pulldown/pipecleaner_dance.html
Posted by Me at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 16, 2006
Happy Eatster Everyone!
Posted by Me at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rock Box on the iPod
This may be the one thing that sways me to the Dark Side of Apple!
http://entertainment.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/04/13/165223
Posted by Me at 10:00 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 12, 2006
Roku SoundBridge Action Shots
Roku SoundBridge. M2000
A while ago I mentioned purchasing the Roku Soundbridge, a remote wireless MP3 player that uses either a slim server or DAAP server for acessing MP3's via WiFI or Ethernet.
I ended up purchasing a few (4 to be exact), but not as Music players, but as remote alert console ticker displays. Don't get me wrong, The remote music interface is great. But I didn't really need it.
What I needed was some way to flash a message when an event occurs. As cool as it is to have a speech synthesizer speak your email or alerts, it still doesn't suffice if you're busy or are not close enough to hear it.
Enter the soundbridge.
So I purchased a few of these with a new intention in mind. The manufacture opened the interface enough to allow remote control via socket programming or telnet interface.
So maybe you've been wondering where I've been, why no entries.. Well..
It's been alot of studying and alot of programming to create a C socket application to function as a shell script interpreter to control this puppy.
I tied it in with Festival and SpeechD so when the computer talks, the 3 SB's in my home all light up with the message. The one in the bedroom kicks out of standby lights up then shuts off.
It's working pretty well now and it's cool to hear the computer alert me then see the three units display the message like a ticker.
So Finally.... I'm ready to show action shots to everyone I've been touting this to.
I've now rigged my work environment to foward alerts into this environment also. So now no matter where I'm at I have a bird's eye view of everything I'm responsible for.
In the meantime as I'm learning a bit about RSS, I wrote a NAGIOS logger to create An RSS feed of alerts.
This now enables me to have a birdseye alert view from Larry's new emwebmail interface or My Yahoo page.
If any one is interested, I can post the code and create a new projects folder.
Soon to come is an interface to gather RSS feeds and spit them out on the SoundBridge.
Although I'll probably work on a Driver for LCDPROC or LCD4LINUX
and use that environment instead.
In the long run I think that would prove to be more flexible and allow the greatest growth/use.
Also the cost of a SoundBridge M1000 is not much more then a Crystal Fontz and it gives you a music player too!
Sound Bridge Action Shot Gallery
My Desk at work.
And a Close Up.
See the Extended Entry for other pictures.
Disk running out of room again.!
Seismic RadioBot Alert Close up.
Nagios Display in the Dark. (It lights up the room)
A shot of the unit over the TV. Any blurriness is purely the camera, the larger M2000 is very visible and readable.
This one is in my Bedroom, on top of a Cambridge Soundworks Radio.
Normally it is off, but the script will turn it on, then marquee the message, then turn it off.
Posted by Me at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 11, 2006
Reading a new book.
Reading a new book.
Cuz sometimes you need a "for dummies" book. LOL. Just kidding babester!
Posted by Me at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 07, 2006
J&R CD Haul
Been a while since I've hauled CD's from J&R Music world.
Seems I've been a bit behind the times heh...
So Today's haul was.
Garbage - Bleed Like Me (Yes I'm a garbage fan, although nothing beats version 2.0)
Rob Zombie - Educated Horses
Queensryche Operation Mindcrime II
Crystal Method - Community Service II
Tweekend has been my favorite for a long time. If they don't pull out the stops on this release it will be my last.
I wasn't particularly happy with the prior one.
Posted by Me at 02:20 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
April 02, 2006
Vote for Stride
Seems one of the prog bands has a chance to open up for Bon Jovi.
Good Band, Why not help out, give'em a listen and submit your vote at http://bonjovi.livedaily.com
Posted by Me at 05:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack