Archive for February, 2008
Saturday, February 16th, 2008
This morning, the nice UPS man dropped off a little package for me at the door. This has been a busy week for him, because I ordered four things. It’s not my fault, I just keep coming up with these great ideas.
In case you were curious, he dropped off the webcam I told you about in my last post. I was fairly excited to hook it up, but since the whole webcam thing happened yesterday, I already knew what to expect. The webcam I ordered was the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. Here are the features as per the Logitech website:
* Carl Zeiss® optics: Get more detail and clarity from Carl Zeiss® optics. Logitech’s glass lens designed in collaboration with Carl Zeiss®, the global leader in camera optics.
* Premium autofocus: Your images stay razor-sharp, even in close-ups.
* HD video: Video calling and sharing has never looked so real at 960 by 720 pixels.
* Higher megapixel performance: A true two-megapixel sensor. Up to eight-megapixel* photos (enhanced).
* RightLight™2 Technology: Adjusts intelligently to produce the best possible images in dimly lighted or poorly backlighted settings.
* Integrated microphone with RightSound™ Technology: Enjoy crystal clear conversations, free from echo** and annoying background noise.
* Ultra-wide field of view and intelligent face tracking: Keeps you right in the middle of the action.
I installed the software and hooked it up. I went through all the setting and then plugged in the USB cord (of which ports I have run out of). Then, I saw myself…about 20X more clear than yesterday. Wow. The lighting is really good as compared to the lighting yesterday. The clouds may have caused that. This one is two megapixels and has a nice microphone. It was built just for the purpose I am going to use it for…talking to James.
Now, I am just waiting for Stephanie to call me so I can try it out live.
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Posted in Computers, Family & Friends, Technology | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 15th, 2008
This is pretty neat. The other day, I was fooling around with my laptop. I noticed that it had a built in webcam, but had no idea how to use it. There didn’t seem to be any program associated with it.
I emailed my sister, Stephanie, and asked her to look into this because she has a very similar laptop. We got them at about the same time (I am actually writing a post from it for the first time). A few days later, she told me she figured out how to use the webcam. She said any program that needed it would automatically use it. Cool, I thought.
Around the same time I was fooling around with the webcam, I downloaded and installed Skype. I told Stephanie about it and she downloaded it as well. Basically, (if you aren’t familiar with what Skype is), Skype is a program that allows you to talk to a computer from your own computer. It also allows for video communication. I wasn’t having much luck trying to call Stephanie through Skype because she wasn’t logged in.
Today, I was just sitting there doing some work on my computer, when I heard this weird noise coming from my computer. It was sort of like a phone ringing. Then, I saw this box in the middle of my screen…it told me that Stephanie was trying to call. I clicked the green button to allow her to connect. I faintly heard Stephanie trying to talk, when I saw this little box pop up. It was a video of her and my nephew, James, sitting at the table looking at her laptop. They were waving and saying something I couldn’t hear. I starting laughing with such joy. I know that sounds lame, but it was really exciting. I started yelling at my computer, “Hey, can you hear me…CAN YOU HEAR ME???” She couldn’t hear anything, or see anything for that matter, so she ended the call. I didn’t have a webcam or a microphone on that computer. I instantly picked up the phone and called her. She answered and I started yelling, “I saw you. I saw you and James!!!” She was pretty damn excited. I got on my laptop and asked her to call back.
To make a long story short, we “video talked” about four times today. I got to see Steve, Steph, Storm, James, Matthew, my mother and my father. That was a thrill. I carried my laptop around the house and showed them all my stuff. All for free. Skype doesn’t charge for computer to computer calls. I think this is very cool.
Anticipating this, I already ordered a nice video webcam from Circuit City a few days ago. I am going to hook that one up to my desktop. I have to get a headset for that computer as well. I think this is going to come in handy when I have to talk to people from now on.
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Posted in Computers, Family & Friends | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
Who Will Control Advertising on the Web?
Exactly how are companies going to make money on the social web? The path to the next generation of online advertising does indeed remain murky, but two new deals may provide a little light.
Google Experimental Search with Digg Style voting
Straight from google experimental labs, they’re experimenting on search engine ranking which can be influenced by users via a “vote” (sort of like digg).
Overhaul of net addresses begins
The first big steps on the road to overhauling the net’s core addressing system have been taken. On Monday the master address books for the net are being updated to include records prepared in a new format known as IP version 6. Widespread use of this format will end the shortage of addresses that sites can be given.
How Big Is the Web? 155,583,825 Sites - Report
A January Netcraft survey estimates that there were last month 155,583,825 WEB SITES ON THE INTERNET.
Improving your click through rate with Creative Search Marketing
Consumers are becoming more savvy in the way they search online, great targeting isnt enough to get their attention relevance of ad creative is now the driving factor in click through rate.
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Posted in Current Events, Internet, Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
To run the wiring for the dishwasher, I had to cut a piece of sheetrock out of the wall below the breaker box. I did this to get my drill down at the bottom of the wall so I could drill a hole for the wire. I was really trying to avoid this, but I couldn’t figure out any better way to do it. Somehow, I am sure people out there have a nifty little system of running wires through houses. After all, how the heck do they run the wires for home security systems?
Anyway, I cut out a clean piece. It wasn’t hard to cut a matching piece to put back in the hole. When I first started cutting, I figured I could just cut the piece of wall out and then return that same piece back in the wall. Due to the screws holding the wall in place, I was unable to do that. Oh well.
Today, I decided to patch the wall back up and get it ready for paint. I took a few very, very exciting pictures to illustrate how I did this.
This is the “before” photo. As you can clearly see, I did a marvelous job at cutting the new piece of sheetrock.
Since I didn’t have my 4″ putty knife handy (it was in the basement), I decided to go ahead with my 1 1/2″ inch one. This proved to be a bit more difficult getting the joint compound on the wall. I am used to a “smear” here and a “smoosh” there, but this kind of just made a mess. Basically, the trick is to get enough joint compound on the wall and for it to remain wet enough for the tape to adhere to. I had to put on a little extra to get this job done.
Once all the joint compound was on the wall, I finished adhering the rest of the tape to it. When I was putting up the tape, I made sure to press extra hard on it with the putty knife to squeeze all the additional joint compound out from behind the tape.
Finally, I added some joint compound on top of the tape and smoothed it out with my big 10″ putty knife. I love using this towards the end because it does such a great job cleaning up the mess I made earlier. All I have to do now is wait for it to dry and then add another coat. Then I sand and paint. Word up.
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Posted in Home Improvement | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
When I put the new dishwasher in and gave it a trial run, I noticed a few drops of water coming out of the main seal in the bottom. The seal goes between the whole dishwasher tub and the sump unit. I am not sure that’s what it’s called, but what I mean is the big round unit that attaches to the dishwasher underneath the whole thing. It’s about a foot wide and the motor connects to it.
I really wanted to ignore it, but I just couldn’t. I called the appliance store and they sent a guy out. We determined that the actual plastic of the sump unit was warped slightly. He ordered a new one.
Today, he came out with the new part and we put it in. We tightened up all the screws and ran it a run. No water to be seen. I am quite happy with the results.
As we were installing the new part, we kept on saying how it’s a shame that a slight warp in the plastic part can make the whole thing bad and have to be replaced. Oh well, I guess that’s how these things turn out.
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Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Well, the day finally came. I was supposed to wait between four and seven days for the fermentation to stop with my home brew. It’s day seven and it just about stopped. How do I know it stopped? Well, the bubbles became few and far between. Also, the hydrometer reading was between 1.008 and 1.010. That’s the ideal reading for home brew with the type of sugar I used. If I had used regular white sugar, I would’ve had to have a reading of less than 1.006. Why did it take the full seven days? Because the temperature wasn’t as warm as I would’ve liked. The warmer the temperature, the faster the fermentation.
This is a photo of the hydrometer at work. It’s hard to tell the reading, but it’s about 1.009. After I found out that the brew was ready to be bottled, I had to add the carbonation drops to each bottle. All carbonation drops are is sugar balls. You can use regular sugar or these types of drops. The company that made the brew kit likes to make things easy for you. I had thirty 740ml bottles, so each bottle took two carbonation drops.
This is the adhesive thermometer. This tells me that the temperature is OK to bottle. The only reason the temperature is this high is because I had the tub sitting in front of the pellet stove. It’s hard to keep it this warm in the Winter.
This is what you call a “little bottler.” It helps to bottle the beer. You don’t really need one of these, but I guess it does help not make too much of a mess. It sticks right in the tap. Also, it’s imperative that you have a tablecloth like this. It helps with the bottling.
Me starting to bottle…
…and me bottling.
This is a photo of all thirty bottles full of beer. I have to wait another seven days with the bottles at 21C-27C and then another seven days at room temperature. I can then drink them. They say that if I wait up to three months, the flavor will get better and the bubbles will get smaller. We’ll see.
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Posted in Food & Drink | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
As promised, I got my bear spray. Please remember, this is not only bear spray, it’s anything that messes with us spray. This stuff shoots up to 20 feet and will take care of anything in its path. It creates a “fog” that is big enough for the situation. The package says the spray lasts for nine seconds. Hopefully that will be long enough for me to follow up with my secondary punishment.
Here is a picture…
The spray is called, “Guard Alaska Bear Repellent” and comes in a 9oz. can. With a bat, I am going to feel pretty good walking with this stuff. Considering our bear experience and our recent dog experience, I would say we need something.
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Posted in Animals | No Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Our cat, Simon, has some mental problems. He usually sleeps, but sometimes he fights with the other cats for no reason. He also eats too much. Sometimes, he has his way with articles of clothing or my winter hats. It is an odd scene.
I have this neck warmer that I sometimes wear as a hat. It is in tube formation, so the top of the hat has a big hole in it. The other day, after Simon was acting up, I decided to slip this neck warmer over his body, so it was around his waist. I call it “The Punisher” because he settles down while wearing this. If you have a cat, you know that they act very strange if they are wearing any clothing.
Last night, while sitting on the couch, I decided to slip this neck warmer over Simon’s head, around his neck. I thought he would try to get out of it, but oddly enough, he seemed to like it. Laura just had to run in the other room to get the camera. Wanna see?
You can see the “issues” in his eyes, right?
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Posted in Animals | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Yesterday was one of those Winter days you could do without. It was snowing a tad bit in the morning, but by the afternoon, the snow was flying directly sideways. Well, eventually it hit the ground. I think we had a whiteout here.
On the news this morning, I heard there was a car pileup in Scranton and Rochester due to the wind and snow. I stayed up way too late last night listening to the wind. I hate this type of weather.
I took a picture of the trees in the back of the house. You can tell which way the wind was blowing because one side of each tree is completely covered while the other side has no snow at all on it.
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Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Just as a quick FYI, I noticed that Lowe’s spells moulding like “Moulding.” So, that’s the way I will spell it from now on.
Yesterday, I began putting up the crown moulding in the kitchen. Not the cabinet stuff, that’s already done. This was the regular stuff I like to put up in every room, when I can. I really wasn’t even noticing the gaps in the sheetrock up at the ceiling anymore because I have been basking in the glow of the new kitchen. Yesterday, I figured it was about time I got off my duff.
I went down to Lowe’s and grabbed four 12′ pieces of nice crown moulding. Since the corner cabinet goes all the way to the ceiling, I only had to extend one piece, and that is pretty hidden by the big pantry. I nailed and caulked everything yesterday after I hung it. Today, I painted it all up nice.
This is actually where I had to put two pieces together. The extra piece is only about 8″ long and is in the corner. I got lucky that everything lined up nicely.
If you will kindly notice, there are two 2″ blocks at the sides of the corner cabinet. Those blocks are the workaround that we came up with the deal with two different types of crown moulding merging into one area.
This is just more kitchen crown moulding from a different view.
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Posted in Home Improvement | 5 Comments »
