Tuesday - November 30, 2004
TiVo for your radio?
Well, sorta.... it's the Griffin Radio Shark
Connect it to your PC or Mac via USB and your radio listening habits will never be the same. The Radio Shark can record any AM or FM radio broadcast in real time. Like a DVR, you can "pause" live broadcasts and program it to record scheduled shows. The fin-shaped body gets all the power it needs from the USB port and acts as an antenna for the best reception possible.
Posted by jcraven at 11:03 AM | Tech
Free iPod update
As of yesterday, I officially had 6 confirmed people sign up under my name for freeipods.com
Your Status:
Congratulations! You have requested that your account be approved. We will now go through this process, and review your account and referrals. Please check back after 5 business days to see your status.
Maybe I'll get it by Christmas if I'm lucky.....
UPDATE: It arrived... click here for full info.
Posted by jcraven at 9:45 AM | Deals
Monday - November 29, 2004
Deck the Halls
We decorated the house for Christmas yesterday. Actually, Lara did most of the decorating. I was just there for the heavy lifting. You can see the cats were working hard too.
Posted by jcraven at 8:19 AM | Misc
Sunday - November 28, 2004
Munchies
Target now has the perfect Christmas gift for anyone on your list. Includes free shipping!
Posted by jcraven at 8:09 AM | Misc
Thursday - November 25, 2004
Turkey Day
Spent the day eating and visiting with family. The football games weren't very entertaining......
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Posted by jcraven at 10:31 PM | Misc
Wednesday - November 24, 2004
Let the buying begin
So today CompUSA had a special sale from 4PM to close. Lara was nice enough to make a trip to the store right at 4:00. Upon arriving, she found the entire parking lot was full. There were people litteraly running into the store to save a couple bucks. She picked up this UPS for $30 after rebate. It took almost an hour to get through the checkout line. I owe her big. :)
The UPS is a rebadged APC, and is the exact same form factor as the 450V it is replacing. All in all, a pretty good deal. With these crowds, I guess this officially signals the start of the the Christmas buying season. woo-hoo!
Posted by jcraven at 10:23 PM | Tech
Thursday - November 18, 2004
Motorola V60i
Posted Lara's old cell phone on ebay.....
Feel free to make a bid.
Posted by jcraven at 4:57 PM | Tech
Christmas rocks!
Last night we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the BTI center. It was an absolutely amazing experience. The 2.5+ hour show included various types of music from classical, R&B, opera, spoken word, sacred, and of course some fantastic hard rock. Most of the show is centered around Christmas, and includes many of the most common Christmas songs. My favorite was Carol of the Bells, which can be heard about halfway through this sample. They also had an impressive stage show complete with lighting effects, lasers, pyrotechnics and 'snow'.
The audience was just as varied as the music. We saw everything from people in full suits and gowns to fans dressed in black leather and T-Shirts.
Near the end they also played some of their non-Christmas songs which included selections from Beethoven to Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song and Stairway to heaven.
I'm tempted to buy their new box set. It includes 3 CDs and a DVD of their performance.
Posted by jcraven at 12:22 PM | Movies & Music
Wednesday - November 17, 2004
I'll give it a try
So I've decided to try out the freeipod craze. If you want to try out a free month of Blockbuster, BMG, or many other promotions, I'd appreciate the help.
Click here.
Also, they now have a similar offer for the new Photo iPod.
There are plenty of people that have had it work for them. Here are a couple of the Screen Savers hosts with their testimony.
UPDATE: It arrived... click here for full info.
Posted by jcraven at 10:58 AM | Deals
Tuesday - November 16, 2004
Halo 2 first impressions.....
Over the weekend Scott and Mitch stopped by to play some Halo 2. We played through a couple hours in Campaign mode. Overall I think the storyline is a little weak, and the cut-scenes haven't been improved too much.
Although, there are some definite improvements. The in-game graphics and music are great as always. The ability to weild two guns is great. The only downside to the dual guns is that it makes it much harder to throw grenades. I guess this makes sense unless you had a third arm, but still rather annoying. I wish you could assign the black button to throw grenades instead of switching grenade types.
Multiplayer is addictive, and there's a ton of different gameplay modes. I tried for a couple minutes to get it working with XBConnect but wasn't immediately successful. It may have been the personal firewall on my laptop causing issues. I'll give it a try again when I have some time to troubleshoot. Some of the maps are so big, that you really need more than 3 or 4 local players to have fun.
Overall, Halo 2 is a really good game, but I don't think it's all that it's hyped to be.
Posted by jcraven at 10:21 AM | Tech
Monday - November 15, 2004
I'm finally famous!!
Well sorta.... I guess. Buy tickets here.
Posted by jcraven at 9:47 AM | Movies & Music
Sunday - November 14, 2004
Happy Birthday Lara!!
Today is Lara's birthday. As part of the Birthday tradition, we always have to go out to eat at a nice restaurant. On Thursday we went to The Melting Pot for dessert. We had the "Yin & Yang" chocolate fondue. It was quite tasty, and included bananas, strawberries, pineapple, pound cake, cheesecake and brownies to dip in the chocolate. I don't see us eating there very often, but it's definitely good for a special occasion.
Continuing our binge, on Friday we went to Maggiano's Little Italy. We chose the Family Style menu which includes about 10 pounds of food. It was very good, but quite expensive. We came home with 4 takeout containers worth of leftovers though. I guess it's back to the diet during the upcoming week... fun times.
Posted by jcraven at 12:40 PM | Misc
Saturday - November 13, 2004
What were they thinking?
G4TechTV has fired everyone on "The Screen Savers" except Kevin and Sarah. The official thread is here. They also canceled "Unscrewed", but I don't know anybody that watches that anyway. More info can also be found at Kevin's and Alex's websites.
Posted by jcraven at 12:38 PM | Comments (2) | Misc
Thursday - November 11, 2004
w.bloggar test posting
Well per Scott's recommendation, I'm trying out some new blog software called w.bloggar.
So far it's pretty cool, once you get it running. I'm apparently too stupid to read directions though, and needed Scott's assistance during setup. :)
Posted by jcraven at 3:27 PM | Tech
Wednesday - November 10, 2004
Dell is omnipresent
Dell announced they are building a factory here in RTP. While the pay isn't so great, it's good to see the new jobs in the area. Details can be found here.
A more cynical view courtesy of The Register.
On a related note, here's an account of a recent call to Dell support. Thanks goes to Steve for the link.
Posted by jcraven at 4:46 PM | Tech
Tuesday - November 9, 2004
Firefox 1.0
Firefox 1.0 has been released. Download the Windows version here or the Mac version here.
Posted by jcraven at 10:02 AM | Tech
Bye bye Wannstedt
So the Miami Dolphins have a big Press conference this morning at 11AM. Rumor is that Coach Dave Wannstedt will be stepping down as head of the Dolphins. At 1-8, who can blame him?
UPDATE: It's official. Wannstedt Steps Aside As Dolphins Head Coach; Jim Bates Named Interim Head Coach. Full details.
Posted by jcraven at 9:44 AM | Sports
Over the weekend....
ASU beat Elon pretty badly.... 48-7. We had a great time. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't come out as well as I had hoped, but here's a link anyway. I think I had the ISO speed settings wrong. Oh well, live and learn.
Also, Lara got back from her trip to Jacksonville, FL. She was there on business, but as you can see, she got in a little beach time regardless.
Posted by jcraven at 9:40 AM | Sports
Friday - November 5, 2004
Go ASU!
This weekend we're going back to Boone for the final regular season home football game vs 2-6 Elon. Should be a nice blowout. It's supposed to be beautiful weather. Sunny and in the high 50's. Too bad most of the leaves have already fallen, but I'll still try to take a couple pictures.
Also for those grads that haven't seen it, Appalachian is HOT!, HOT!, HOT!. What were they thinking?
Posted by jcraven at 4:22 PM | Sports
Thursday - November 4, 2004
Congrats Nate and Jenn
Nate and Jenn have pictures of their first ultrasound. It’s only at 8 ½ weeks right now, so there isn’t much to see. They were able to see its heart beating and its arms moving, though. The doctor said everything looks normal, and Jenn is still on schedule for a due date around June 11th.
Congrats, and good luck!
Posted by jcraven at 10:44 AM | Misc
Tiki Tiki
I found something at Target that no home should be without......
Posted by jcraven at 10:11 AM | Misc
Wednesday - November 3, 2004
Layla's Birthday and Sarah's new car
Layla had her 1st birthday recently. Poor thing.... heh.
Also Sarah got a new ride. Not too shabby.
Posted by jcraven at 11:33 AM | Misc
jeffcraven.com v3.0
Ok, so I've implemented the newest redesign of my website. I'm calling it jeffcraven.com v3.0. You can still access the old site here if needed. Most of the existing links have either been moved to the Nav Bar at the top or the "Links" in the sidebar. Enjoy
Posted by jcraven at 10:13 AM | Tech
Tuesday - November 2, 2004
Movies galore
Since Lara is out of town, I've watched quite a few movies over the past week or so.
Chasing Amy: One of Kevin Smith's earlier films. This is probably the best movie I've watched in the list. I think I'll go back and rent Smith's earlier films, Mallrats and Clerks which was recently released on a 10 year anniversary DVD.
The Missing: Pretty decent flick. If you like 'westerns' this is probably up your alley. At times, it feels like one long extended chase scene, but overall kept me entertained.
The Order: Basically a waste of 1:45 of my time. There was nothing interesting in the plot after the first 15 minutes or so. It also definitely wasn't scary in any way, which is what I was expecting going into it....
Party Monster: Based on the life of Michael Alig, this movie basically follows his rise to fame in the 1980's club scene. This was Macaulay Culkin's first role as an adult, and wasn't exactly spectacular. Seth Green did a good job once you get past his accent. I wouldn't recommend spending money to watch the movie, but if you see it on TV, it may be worth your time.
More to come......
Posted by jcraven at 3:44 PM | Comments (1) | Movies & Music
Monday - November 1, 2004
Amazon is a wonderful thing....
So I decided to re-visit my Amazon.com wishlist. Added some random stuff......
Feel free to check it out
Posted by jcraven at 7:18 PM | Misc
Testing 123
Does it work? Maybe I'll give this blog thing another try.....
Posted by jcraven at 2:50 PM | Comments (1) | Misc