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Thursday - June 30, 2005
Trip Day 1
Today we drove to Maryland and stayed at the Fairfield Inn in Germantown, outside of Washington DC. We didn't get here until about 1AM, making it a very long day, but hope to get back on the road by 10AM tomorrow.
Posted by jcraven at 4:44 PM | Misc
Wednesday - June 29, 2005
Countdown
Only 4 days left until the big day for Scott and Anna.
Over the past weekend, all the guys from the wedding party and myself went to Wrightsville Beach. I won't go into too many incriminating details, but lets just say we had a good time. Also, I don't think Scott will be eating hot wings anytime soon.........
Posted by jcraven at 11:22 AM | Misc
Tuesday - June 28, 2005
Congrats
Better late than never, Congrats to Nate and Jennifer on the birth of their daughter Anna Belle.
Posted by jcraven at 10:22 AM | Misc
Friday - June 24, 2005
T40 Bluetooth upgrade
Unfortunately, my IBM T40 laptop does not have native bluetooth. The good news is that the T42p does, and one of my coworkers was nice enough to let me try out a little procedure on her laptop. I swapped the modem card in my laptop with the bluetooth/modem card in hers. Then, rather than disassembling half of her laptop, I simply ordered the antenna kit for < $4.00 directly from IBM. After an hour or two for installation, everything came up fine. The only caveat, is that you don't get the little bluetooth LED on laptop itself. I've heard you can replace that display to get it, but it's not worth the time or effort. In case you want to do this yourself here are the part numbers:
Bluetooth/Modem card for T4x laptops: 91P7315
Bluetooth Antenna for 14.1" in screens: 91P6897
Here is the ordering page, and here is the service manual.
Obviously, I make no warranty about any changes you make to your laptop. It worked fine for me, but if something bad happens to your laptop, don't blame me.
Posted by jcraven at 4:15 PM | Comments (2) | Tech
Remodel
My parents have finished remodeling their house. You can see pictures of the finished product here. I'm glad to see that 25 year old paneling go......
Posted by jcraven at 9:07 AM | Misc
Thursday - June 23, 2005
Busy
So I've been busy with my new job, and haven't had time to post anything. So, as a substitute, check out the newest blog I've been reading called Cinematical. Why? Because everybody needs to know how much it costs to be Batman.
Posted by jcraven at 8:41 AM | Sports
Thursday - June 16, 2005
Moving on
So today/tomorrow is my last day in my current job. After four years, I'm moving into a new position as a network engineer. The people here have been great, and I will miss (most of) them. :-) The new job is a great oppurtunity, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.
The only question I have, is where are the strippers and booze.....or at least a freakin cake?
Posted by jcraven at 2:42 PM | Comments (1) | Misc
TiVo movies download?
Since Scott is on his way to New York, I'll post this just for him. Check out PVRBlog for details about TiVo's beta movie download service.
It's unlikely to ever be available to DirecTV units, but it's still pretty cool.
Posted by jcraven at 10:33 AM | Comments (1) | Tech
Monday - June 13, 2005
Wish you were here
Some pretty amazing news, Pink Floyd has announced they will be playing at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on July 2nd. A message has been posted on pinkfloyd.com. This is great since the original band has not performed live since 1981, when I was a mere 2 years old. I'm only hoping that this may be a sign of a reunion tour, or maybe even a new studio album. Some more info can be found here courtesy of Yahoo.
Posted by jcraven at 10:28 AM | Movies & Music
Sunday - June 12, 2005
Damn you Scott
Previously, I had mentioned I was thinking of buying a Nintendo DS. Well Scott finally convinced me to buy one. I picked up the Electric Blue version from Best Buy (used a $10 off coupon). The games we played over the weekend were a combination of games we bought, and borrowed. The full list includes Super Mario 64 DS, WarioWare Touched, Yoshi's Touch & Go, and Puyo Pop Fever. I also borrowed the GBA game The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Lara is hooked on WarioWare, and I had to pry the system away from her. But once I did, I spent most of the time playing the Minish Cap. The DS games are entertaining, and the game play is interesting, but as a general rule, they are way too short. The multiplayer is really cool though. The games we used only require one game cartridge. The second player actually downloads the game over the wireless link. I think there is a lot of potential, and of course I can't wait for Legend of Zelda: DS to come out at Christmas.
Posted by jcraven at 7:21 PM | Comments (4) | Video Games
Thursday - June 9, 2005
Things I can't pronounce
Yesterday we decided to stop by XIOS: Authentic Greek Cuisine in Apex for dinner. The restaurant was a lot nicer than I was expecting considering it's basically in a strip mall. Be sure to check out the dinner menu here. If anybody can give me a pronunciation guide for the dishes, I'd appreciate it. :)
Lara chose the Chicken Gyro which looked quite good. I had the XIOS Kota meh Pasta which was absolutely fantastic. It was very light, and the garlic and herbs weren't overpowering. I'd definitely recommend it. Next time we go, maybe we'll try some of the more exotic menu items.
Posted by jcraven at 9:56 AM | Misc
Tuesday - June 7, 2005
DVD Decrypter outlawed
According to the following story, it appears DVD Decrypter is now dead. This is very unfortunate, as it was the best DVD ripping program I have used, and it's free. Luckily, the current release should continue running without any major problems. Maybe the EFF will get involved and try to bring the product back.....
Posted by jcraven at 9:44 AM | Tech
Monday - June 6, 2005
Macs on Intel?
During the WWDC '05 keynote today, Steve Jobs has announced that the future of the Mac platform will be Intel based. I can hear the hearts of PowerPC fanboys all over the world shattering......
Here's the official press release courtesy of Yahoo. One interesting thing to note is that the developer kits (which include a 3.6GHz P4) are only $999. Too bad they're only available for Select and Premier members of the ADC. I wonder if they'll show up on eBay?
I think from a technical standpoint they had to make this move. The G5 is too power hungry and runs too hot compared to Intel's offerings. That's the main reason a G5 laptop isn't shipping yet. On the other hand, I don't know how this will affect their pricing strategy. Can they continue to charge a price premium for a box that is basically the same hardware as $400 Dell PC? I guess time will tell.....
Posted by jcraven at 2:09 PM | Tech
New Provider
So I'm trying out a new provider for my webpage. The company is Dreamhost. They have a 97 day money back guarantee, so I figure it's worth a look. Also, if you refer another person, you get a $97 credit. That covers a whole year of service.
Posted by jcraven at 10:38 AM | Tech
Friday - June 3, 2005
Current Desktop feature
I ripped off the idea from another blog I read, but I have added a feature to the left side of my main site that gives you the current desktop/background on my Mac. You can click the image to open up the full size image in a separate window. Most of them will be 1280x1024 resolution because that's what I use at home, so you'll have to do your own resizing if needed. I'll keep them rated PG-13 or less.
Now, in case you're wondering how I update the image. I use a feature in Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) called Automator. I created a script and assigned it to a right-click menu. The basic flow is:
Click an image -> it is copied to a temp directory -> renamed to desktop.jpg -> uploaded to my website -> resized to thumbnail -> renamed to tn_desktop.jpg -> uploaded to my website -> set the background locally on the Mac -> temp files are deleted
Clear as mud eh? If you would like a copy of the workflow, let me know. Also, to do the upload, I used the Actions that are included as part of Transmit 3.2.
Posted by jcraven at 1:52 PM | Desktops
Wednesday - June 1, 2005
More free stuff
My iPod photo arrived today. (That's makes free iPod #3). Pictures of all three can be found in my Album here.
If you want to feel the love, Gratis now has a Free Xbox 360 offer. Check here for details. I've added it to my list of links on the left side of the page. This may be the only way Lara let's me get one, so help me out. ;-)
FYI: It takes 8 referrals to receive your xbox.
Posted by jcraven at 3:54 PM | Comments (1) | Deals | Tech