Lewies Blog

A few weeks ago, the Systems Administrator at my company stated that he had a rack that he was going to throw out. I volunteered to take it off his hands. After going through the beurocratic process of confirming that the company could let it go to me, I requested the day off to come and pick it up.

My mother in-law came to the house and woke me up. We drove up to work and it took two of us to put it in the back of her van. When I got home, I started unscrewing everything. Each piece had a good bit of weight to it. I figured that I could make it easier to transport into the house and downstairs if I took as much off as I could.

My plan worked fine. Assembling the rack was a different story. I didn’t know how it was originally assembled. Since tonight was my Friday night Sci-Fi lineup, it took me over 4 hours to put this thing together during the commercial breaks.

Ok, I might be going overboard here, but I totally feel geeky just having one of these in my basement. It’s not a unit to hold rack-mountable servers, but then again, I don’t have rack-mountable servers. It is perfect for what I do have - desktops.

I’m already noticing that the wires can be hidden behind things on the sides. Things feel so much more accessable to hook up and change around. Even our living room is looking a bit better with a pile of humming servers in the corner. I only wish that the original doors came with this shelf unit so that I might be able to reduce some noise.

Tags: Rack, Server, Servers, System Administrator, Hardware, Shelf, Shelving Unit, Desktops, Geek, Geeky, Geek Furniture, Geeky Furniture, Work, Order, Free

I forgot to mention that my free T-Shirt came in the mail the other day. It was pretty late considering that I received my free iPod a few weeks earlier. Unfortunately, the shirt came in the color of white. I’ll get over it.

I’m starting to notice something. I haven’t even listened to my XM radio since I received my iPod. I would listen to XM every day at work and on my commute. Now it is iPod all the time.

After rating many of my songs, I don’t listen to much else except for those rated with 5 stars. Sometimes I’ll look up an album or an artist depending on my mood - but most of the time I stick to the 5 stars playlist that I created.

In my commute into work I’ll either listen to Podcast Paul or Dark Compass. If they haven’t published anything by the time that I take off, then it’s music on the way in. Sometimes I might listen to a podcast from the BritCaster.

I also finished completing beta testing of NewsworthyAudio. For those of you who do not know, Newsworthy Audio is a news service that takes articles from mainstream news papers and uses text-to-speech utilities to serve them as MP3’s. It is very similar to Talkr wich does the same thing for blogs (or anything with an RSS feed). Besides text-to-speech, NewsworthyAudio also hires professional readers as well.

It was only a week long and I didn’t bother testing on Saturday or Sunday as I didn’t have to commute to work. As soon as the weekend comes, I am no longer a news junkee. When the test ended, I was invited to attend a focus group after work in the following week. They served dinner and also handed me a crisp $100 bill. It was interesting to see the kind of folks that were there. One participant claimed that he worked with Syndic8.

It appeared that a few people couldn’t tell the difference between the text conversion audio and the professional readers. I’ve heard quite a few speech engines out there and must admit that theres was pretty good. I was able to tell that it was a converted text feed though. I don’t know if it is because I know what to listen for, but I could have sworn I heard a “gargle” sound within the words.

The NewsworthyAudio focus group went on for a few hours and towards the end, the hardest part was to determine prices for different scenarios. Since Talkr already does something similar for free (or the first 3 feeds), I can’t see myself paying for something that someone else is already offering for free. On top of that, I didn’t user Talkr after a couple weeks of trying it out along with other podcasting services and utilities.

Personally, I have very bad reading comprehension. I’ll read through a paragraph a few times and I won’t know what I had just read. At other times, I can read just fine, but at a slow pace. Some may say that this kind of service is perfect for someone like me. I don’t know. My biggest complaint was that I would listen for gramical errors after the conversion messed up the first time.

They are also rewarding me with a few months of free service. Maybe it will grow on me. At the moment though, I am just not interested. So what did I get out of this beta test? Here is a quick inventory:

• 128 MB Rio Forge MP3 Player with FM tuner
• Belkin FM Transmitter
• $100 cash from Focus Group
• Free dinner
• 9 Months free service
• 2 additional AAA batteries

What did I put into it?

• 5 days of listening to audio on my commute: 7 hours
• Answering pretty extensive surveys each night: 6 hours
• Some input in the focus groups: 3 hours
• Troubleshooting synchronizing between my Rio Forge and iTunes: 2 hours
• Permitting audio and video recording of myself at the focus group

That focus group - I felt like I was just wanting to talk a few times, but so many people are more dominant in that area. It was hard to see a chance to say something. Most of us were in the IT industry, such as developers, network administrators, etc. You can imagine the can of worms you are opening when you get a lot of people like that together in a Focus group. Somehow everyone starts to form opinions and suggestions. It’s good, but you can get off topic easily. The moderator helped keep us on track though.

Now my Rio Forge sets here in the shadows of my iPod. It has no life, no purpose. The same goes for the Belken FM Transmitter. The Griffen Road Trip FM Transmitter is more compact, convienient, easier to use and estetically pleasing to the eye.

Tags: iPod, Free iPod, Newsworthy Audio, NewsworthyAudio, Newsworthy, Audio, News, Syndication, Syndic8, Focus Group, Free, Free Stuff, Beta, Beta Testing, Service, News Service, TShirt, T-Shirt

Today I went to The National Zoo in Washington, DC. Angel tried to talk me into staying home and getting some take-out chinease food from China King Buffet. Somehow, I got out of it and still went to the zoo alone. I had a good time and did a lot of walking. The heat was unbearable and I was almost dehydrated. I drank plenty of lemonaide and it did the trick. I tried to stay inside most of the houses while I was there as well. On the way home, my front passenger tire blew out on the highway. I had a spare tire and was able to change it without any problems.

I am beat. I’ll leave you with a few photos to enjoy. Hopefully each one is worth a thousand words to make up for the lack of a story.

Tags: Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Smithsonian, National Zoo, Zoological, Park, National, Trip, Outside, Adventure, Heat, Walking, Spare Tire, Blew, Tire, Highway Blowout, Flat Tire

I don’t feel like I’m 30. I feel like … me. However, looking back 10 years, or even 5 years, I feel like I’m looking at an entirely different person. This person is part of the building blocks of who I am today. In a sense, they are no longer alive, but there memories are carried with me.

I usually don’t look at what I have not accomplished. I go the other way around. I always look at where I am now compared to a year ago. Finances, Quality of life, achievements, ending of problems, etc. I’m usually doing a little better.

The next marker is 35. The framers of the Constitution felt that you needed to be at least 35 to have enough experience to govern a country. Being at least 35 years of age is one of the requirements to become the president of The United States. Although I do not plan to become the president, it is a lower number to look forward to rather then the age of retirement.

Tags: Thirty, 30, Looking Back, Different, Person, Building Blocks, Who I am, Who am I, Who am I?, Life, Memories, Experience, Accomplishments, Finances, Quality of Life, Achievements, Problems, 35, Thirty-Five, Constitution, Govern, Country, President, Requirements, The United States, USA, United States, The President of The United States, Retirement, Thoughts, Age, Opinion

I purchased the PS2 Linux kit for my playstation more then a year ago. The kit is only compatible with monitors that support “Sync-on-Green”. I have been able to get it to work with my television, but the resolution is horrible for a computer.

Ever since then, I’ve been on a search for a special monitor. I have a good many monitors here, but nothing ever worked. Last week, one of my co-workers advertised to the group that he had a few monitors from home that he no longer needed. Someone joked that nobody would want a 15″ monitor. I quickly acknowledged that I could use one for my servers at home. I could always use more monitors.

I got the monitor on Friday. Since I went over to a friends house for the weekend rite after work, I wasn’t able to do anything with it until I got home on Sunday. I was too tired to do anything, but I had a thought that it might be compatable with my PS2.

I got home tonight and sure enough it worked! I am overjoyed. Isn’t it beautiful?

Tags: Linux, Monitor, Free, Work, PS2, Playstation, Kernal, Boot, Console, Linux Kit, Sony

So I went ahead and made my first purchase on iTunes. It took me some time to determine what I wanted to buy. There were so many choices. I was browsing through some old albums that I listened to back in college, or stuff that I used to want.

I then started looking for Daft Punk. These guys come out with some really cool stuff. I just purchased a used CD of Discovery a few months back. I sat there looking at the Human After All album in iTunes. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to purchase the whole album, or just a few select songs.

I started playing the 30 second clips of each song and was not impressed with half of them. After much debate, I went ahead with purchasing only one song - Technologic. I’ll probably buy a few more, but after hearing how the other songs sounded, I can’t justify purchasing the whole album. I can get a used album on Amazon.com cheaper then iTunes price of $9.90.

Tags: iTunes, Frugal, Daft Punk, Human After All, Discovery, Technologic, Album, Music, MP3, Audio, AAC, Sound Clips, Shopping, Amazon, Amazon.com, Songs

Aurorealis was just talking about this subject the other day. A few months ago I went through the performance review period. I had almost forgotten about it. My boss’s, boss’s, boss tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had a minute. I was startled, and you can imagine why.

So I come into his office and ask him what is going on. He is all smiles and asks me to take a seat. He proceeds to tell me that the request for my raise has been approved. Joy! He showed me the numbers and I was a little excited. He said as long as my boss and her boss were happy, then he was happy.

I didn’t know what to say. The amount was a nice sum. I just said “Thank You”. I can not say how much it was, just that it was a positive number. What I will say is that I feel really small and undeserving. Afterall, I only have a high school diploma. He gave me his approval and said that I deserved every penny of it. I don’t think that my car can handle the weight of all of those pennies.

Tags: Raise, Money, Finances, Performance Review, Performance, Review, Boss, Manager, Office, Work, Approval, Excited, Happy, Thank You, Undeserving, Pennies, Penny

So my adventures since I have started this blog are beginning to pay off. I recently got my free iPod in the mail last week. I’m having plenty of fun with it learning about audio players and such. Now my eyes are looking to a new goal to achieve.

Enter the XBox 360. The XBox 360 isn’t even on sale yet. Microsoft has set the date to be in three months in October for the United States. Sales are estimated to be $299 US Currency. However, that isn’t stopping many people from preordering the things.

The same people who brought the free iPod to my doorstep are now offering a free Microsoft XBox 360. Call me greedy, but I don’t want to miss out on this opportunity. I don’t even have the first XBox. My brother has one and he says that the quality is far greater then the Sony Playstation 2. There is much heated debate over the XBox 360 and the Sony PS3 in regards to which is better. The Nintendo Revolution doesn’t even compare with these next two gaming consoles. A PC may offer some heavy competiotion, but you need to realize that these new consoles have multiple processors. Also, they aren’t running a bloated operating system.

So what comes with the XBox 360?

• Backwards compatible with previous Xbox games
• Detachable, upgradeable hard drive
• Wireless controller
• HD game displays on HDTVs
• Stream media from portable music devices & Windows XP PCs
• 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM
• 3 symmetrical cores - 3.2GHz each
• 500MHz ATI graphics processor
• 12x dual-layer DVD drive that supports: DVD, DVD+-R/RW, CD-R/RW, WMA & MP3
• Built-in Ethernet port
• 2 memory unit slots
• 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, b & g

This sounds pretty cool. I already have Wi-Fi in my house. I like the fact that I can try out those old XBox games on the new system.

Anyway, if you are interested in getting a free XBox for yourself, then be sure to complete an offer and post your referral link in your blog and email signatures. I’ll need a few more people for the XBox then the iPod. As long as the free XBox 360 comes to my door, I’ll be happy. I haven’t had anyone complain about my advertising methods yet. Hopefully it isn’t too obtrusive.

One more word of advice: Make sure you complete your offer using Microsoft Internet Explorer. There seems to be a cookie problem with Firefox. Good luck.

Tags: XBox, XBox 360, Microsoft, Free XBox, Free XBox 360, Games, Gaming, Gamecube, PS2, Playstation 2, PC, XBox-360, PS3, Playstation 3, XBox Live, Sony, Nintendo, Revolution, Nintendo-Revolution, x360, Free, Referral, Referrals, XBox360, Videogames, Video Games

I’ve started hunting the internet for products to integrate my iPod with my car. I started out looking for FM Transmitters such as iTrip and AirPlay ranging between $22 and $32. Along with those, I was searching for iPod chargers that would connect to my cars cigarette lighter. I found that Griffen and Xtreme Mac had had some cheap ones ranging between $12 and $14 dollars.

Last, I started hunting for car mounts to hold my iPod in place. There were plenty of styles and methods of mounting. One would set rite in your cup holder, another would attatch directly to your air vents. I could also go with mounts that would attatch to the top of the dashboard. Most of these mounts ranged from $16 to $50.

During my search, I started comming accross car kits that contained two of the items that I needed (FM Transmitter and Charger). Eventually I found some on eBay that contained all three items. It was usually the iTrip transmitter in the kit. Most reviews that I had seen gave the iTrip a bad name due to the AirPlay. The AirPlay is also known as “the iTrip killer”. Funny, eh? So my search was for something with a digital read out on the FM Transmitter that could easily be adjusted.

Eventually, I started finding 3 in 1 solutions. This is where the FM Transmitter is built into the car mount as well as the charger. I was finding a lot of cheap ones from Hong Kong called “CTA DIGITAL 3 in 1 iPod Car Kit”. They were starting out bids for $9. Jumping back over to Amazon.com, I found that they go for $45. That was about $5 cheaper then the cheapest solution if I were to buy all the parts seperate.

This kit sent me in a new direction searching for other 3 in 1 solutions. I eventually found the ultimate solution to my needs. It is called the RoadTrip All-In-One Car Solution for iPod & iPod mini. It had the digital FM Transmitter, the charger, and the car mount. There were two additional features that I loved when I read it. First, it can hold my iPod if I later get a skin for it (and I probably will). Second - the top audio jack and data port are free for any other attachment. I had considered the iTalk to convert it into a digital voice recorder before I got the iPod. Maybe I’ll look into that later.

Any how the price is $70 and Amazon.com is currently sold out. What to do? Well it appears that a few people were selling it through amazon at $53. I searched on eBay just in case someone had it at a cheaper price, but no luck. I went ahead and ordered it. The item appears to be very easy to setup and use. Simplicity, convienience, expandability and price were the main reasons for going with this solution.

Tags: iPod, Car, FM Transmitter, iTrip, AirPlay, Price Hunting, Charger, Cigarette Lighter, Griffen, Xtreme Mac, Car Mounts, Cup Holder, Dashboard, Air Vents, Mounts, Search, Car Kits, eBay, iTrip Killer, Amazon, Frugal, The Ultimate Solution, RoadTrip, All-In-One, iPod mini, Digital, Skin, Audio Player, Voice Recorder, Cheap, Penny Pincher, Simplicity, Convienience, Expandability, Easy Setup, Purchase

So I got home today and noticed a small black box on my desk. I like how everything is so stylish and compact about this little product. I didn’t realize how small the iPod really was. This thing is not only small, but hardly weighs anything as well.

I tried to rotate the click-wheel but found that it doesn’t move. After turning it on, I found that it somehow senses that you are sliding your fingers around it. I started exploring what was on it and found that I could import my contacts, notes, and calendar entries.

I also noticed some games. The two most popular were breakthrough and solitaire. This thing is starting to remind me of a PDA. I searched the net to see if I could find more games, but the only thing available is text-based hyperlinked adventure games. Nothing like the animated graphics that I see on the existing games.

All the while, I was wishing that they had at least installed a demo song of some kind that I could listen to while I waited for the batteries to charge. I started installing the software that came with it and it asked me to connect the iPod to the computer. I gave in and hooked it up to my computer rather then letting the batteries charging fully.

After getting everything setup, the iPod downloaded everything in my media library. I then start learning how to import MP3’s and eventually figure out how to import entire playlists. iTunes complained that my iPod wasn’t large enough to hold everything, so it created a playlist specifically for George. George is the name that I gave to my iPod.

iTunes forgets where files are if they are on the network. I had to go into the options and tell it to copy everything locally. It is taking such a long time to get everything copied now.

I’m considering scanning the album covers to my CD’s or just the CD’s themselves. Due to the fact that my iPod is only a 3rd generation, it doesn’t support displaying album art. I may just forget about it. Anyhow, it is a very large task to undertake and I still haven’t finished categorizing all of the MP3s to begin with.

Other then that, there isn’t much to say about the iPod. It is charging quietly and will soon be full of songs.

I was looking at iTunes and started thinking that some of these albums are going to be a hard sell if you have the ability to purchase the good songs on there own. I have noticed that some songs are available only with the purchase of an album. I guess that is how they get your money. Bjork has an album with some commentary between songs that I am thinking about getting. $10 is cheap for an album after all.

I think artists are going to be a little hard pressed to make sure more of there songs are of better quality. In the past, I’ve had to purchase entire albums even though I only wanted a few songs. Most of the other songs on the album turned out to be utter garbage.

Anyhow, I have dragged this post on long enough. Later folks.

Tags: Black Box, Style, Stylish, Compact, Product, iPod, Free, Free iPod, iTunes, PDA, Games, Demo, Batteries, Charging, Media Library, Connect, MP3, Playlists, M3U, George, Network, Importing, Copying, Scanning, Cover Art, CD, 3rd Generation, Categorizing, Sell, Albums, Bjork, Cheap, Artists, Hard Pressed, Quality, MP3 Player, Audio Player