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Wednesday - December 29, 2004
AVS-5811 getting RMA'd
Previously, I mentioned that I bought the AVS-5811 5.8 GHz Audio & Video Transmission System. Well for some reason the remote repeater has stopped functioning. The audio/video comes through fine, but you can't change channels while downstairs. Matter of fact, it is shooting out some kind of interference that causes the remote to fail while standing directly in front of the TiVo. If you turn off the AVS-5811, the remote suddenly starts working again. Very odd. Anyway, I've got an RMA request for buy.com to send a replacement. I'll update the site with the results of the new unit.
Posted by jcraven at 4:13 PM | Comments (1) | Tech
Monday - December 27, 2004
Locking down comments
I've disabled comments on entries older than 28 days with the help from "Learning Movable Type".
I ended up using one of the recommended utilities called "Conversation Killer". So far it seems to work pretty well.
Posted by jcraven at 3:53 PM | Tech
Saturday - December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas!
Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday......
Posted by jcraven at 4:49 PM | Comments (1) | Misc
Tuesday - December 21, 2004
MT 3.14 released
The new Movable Type v3.14 was released yesterday to combat the "comment SPAM" attacks currently plaguing older versions. This problem recently hit Scott and Andy, to where Scott's provider actually had to disable his account temporarily. I have already upgraded succesfully. More info on the upgrade can be found here.
Posted by jcraven at 10:28 AM | Tech
Monday - December 20, 2004
Early Christmas
Over the weekend we visited Lara's family to celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts. I received two GameCube games.... Donkey Konga and Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. Donkey Konga is really entertaining. Lara and I played it for several hours last night. I'm going to try to find an extra Bongo controller so make two player more interesting. It's not quite the same when using the standard controller's buttons. It will definately be a game to bring out when we have guests over for poker and such. Haven't had a chance to open Metroid 2 yet though......
We also got some other great gifts including a tool set and a bunch of clothes for Lara. All in all we are very grateful.
As a side note, I gained 4 pounds over the weekend. Damn holiday junk food.
Posted by jcraven at 4:01 PM | Misc
Friday - December 17, 2004
Free iPod has arrived!
So I got my FREE silver iPod mini yesterday. It's pretty sweet......
I have pictures as evidence here.
If you would still like to sign up, I have links to the free iPod here, or iPod photo here, or iPod Shuffle here.
Posted by jcraven at 1:11 PM | Comments (2) | Deals
Thursday - December 16, 2004
HMO on DirecTiVo ?!?
There's alot of rumors going around that TiVo's Home Media Option will be released for the DirecTV DVR with TiVo. The new R10 was released which includes v6.1 of the TiVo OS and has some glimpses into the HMO arena.
Here's a review of the R10.
Here's the first reports of an 'interesting' screen on the R10.
And finally, here's a screenshot of a beta tester running the 6.x software on a different platform.
If they rolled out HMO, I'd probably go buy a new receiver. It would be great to share recordings between the HD-TiVo and a standard unit. I just hope they don't charge more than $5/month for the service if they do eventually roll it out.
Posted by jcraven at 3:02 PM | Comments (1) | Tech
Wednesday - December 15, 2004
Poor Scooter
Well the feds have apprarently found Scott's stash of dirty pictures. His webserver account has been disabled.
UPDATE: Scott received this reply from his provider:
It seems like you had an issue with your Moveable Type blog pages. It appears that someone was repeatedly adding comments into entries (spam, basically) which was overloading the server and bringing all our sites down.
Kinda makes you wonder what other vulnerabilities exist in MT.
Posted by jcraven at 4:31 PM | Tech
Another iPod update
Account status shows it has shipped. Should be here shortly..... woo hoo!
UPDATE: It arrived... click here for full info.
Posted by jcraven at 4:05 PM | Deals
Tuesday - December 14, 2004
iPod update
I got the necessary referrals, and completed my offer. They have verified everything is legit, and have submitted the order. Currently the status shows "Sent to Vendor, Waiting on Product". Hopefully it won't be too much longer......
I guess it's time to start working on the Photo iPod too. :)
UPDATE: It arrived... click here for full info.
Posted by jcraven at 11:13 AM | Deals
Monday - December 13, 2004
Cisco vs Juniper
Interesting article about the Router Wars.
Posted by jcraven at 3:23 PM | Tech
3
On Saturday night, we decided to watch 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story on ESPN-HD. All in all, a pretty decent 'made for TV' movie. Being from NC, it was interesting to watch and hear them talking about familiar places where we grew up. Since Lara spent part of her childhood in Kannapolis, she was familiar with the mill and the surrounding area. The movie didn't stick solely to his racing career, instead focusing on the relationships with his family. When they did show racing footage, it was a mix of movie filming and old live clips. The real clips stuck out because the quality was so poor though. Watching the movie on 'regular' ESPN or on a small TV, the difference may have been minimal though. I'm sure they'll show it another 50 times on ESPN, so if you're at all interested, take a look. Also, the DVD version comes out tomorrow.
Posted by jcraven at 1:02 PM | Television
Thursday - December 9, 2004
Merry Christmas to us
For Christmas Lara and I decided to buy a TV for our bedroom, and forgo our normal gifts to each other. We bought the Westinghouse 20" HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV from Best Buy's Black Friday sale. The TV has great picture quality and is very bright even in direct sunlight.
So then the problem came up, how do we want to plug the TV up to DirecTV? We could just add another receiver for $5/month, but we would miss using the TiVo on it. We didn't really want a TiVo in the bedroom though as the fan/hard drive does produce some noise which may be annoying when sleeping. So I decided to pick up the RF Link AVS-5811 5.8 GHz Audio & Video Transmission System from buy.com. This way, I could share the video from the TiVo upstairs directly into our bedroom. Also this saves the need for the extra receiver and saves the $5/month. After two years, I'll break even. :-)
The AVS-5811 arrived yesterday and I plugged it up. The setup is pretty easy, but does require you to 'aim' the sender to the receiver. This wasn't as hard as I anticipated. The video/audio feed is great. I can't really even tell that it's using wireless. Also, the remote commands from downstairs are sent wirelessly to the TiVo which also seems to work really well. The only problem I've run into is getting my universal remote (URC 6131) to control the new TV's power and volume. I have a support case open with OFA to fix it though.
All in all, I give both the LCD TV and the Wireless A/V system 
UPDATE: I have since had to RMA the device. See here for more detail.
Posted by jcraven at 12:02 PM | Tech
Tuesday - December 7, 2004
Chocolate Chess pudding
Continuing the health food cook-off, Lara and I attempted to make two Chocolate Chess pies last night. The filling ended up being a lovely consistency somewhere between pudding and soup. I think we're going to try again, but this time use Angus Barn's recipe.
Posted by jcraven at 1:12 PM | Food
Monday - December 6, 2004
Junk food
Over the weekend, we wrapped the majority of our Christmas presents. We still have a couple left to buy, including replacing one that was lost in transit by USPS.
We also made a bunch of Christmas junk food, including Muddy Buddies, Chex Mix, and a new recipe for Chocolate Rum Balls. They all seem to be well received at work, including the unusually strong Rum Balls.
I really need to start going to the gym again.....sigh.
Posted by jcraven at 2:03 PM | Food
Friday - December 3, 2004
Run Ricky Run
Well it's official. Ricky is nuts. In case there were any doubts left......
"The 2002 NFL rushing champion rejected a deal to serve a four-game drug suspension this season and return to the field next year. He'll stay retired instead, and his lawyer, David Cornwell, doesn't believe Williams will play again."
Maybe they'll use Ricky's money to buy a decent running back in the offseason. At 2-9, they're going to have to do something that's for sure.
Posted by jcraven at 9:04 AM | Comments (3) | Sports
Wednesday - December 1, 2004
Nintendo slave
Scott is evil. He keeps sending me reviews and articles of the Nintendo DS. Now, I haven't owned a portable game system since the original GameBoy back in the late 80's, but this system intrigues me. With games like Metroid, Viewtiful Joe, Mario 64, and Madden 2005 there's definitely some interest. I'll probably at least wait until after Christmas before making a buying decision though, because it costs $150 plus another $40 per game.
Posted by jcraven at 3:46 PM | Video Games