New Toys

That's right I broke down and bought a couple of geek toys in the last week or so.

I finally relented and bought a 10 GB iPod from Apple to replace my Creative Nomad JukeBox. My old MP3 player was simply too big, too slow on the file transfer, and didn't store enough music on it (especially since I ripped my entire music collection). Besides the opportunity to hack the device is oooh so tempting.

Last weekend I picked up a Sony TiVo device out in Tracy. They are closing out the original TiVo's with the release of TiVo 2. All I can say is "it rocks." In the last few days I have been reading up on all the hacks for my TiVo and am planning a new hard drive upgrade to take the recording time up to 130 hours.

Happiness is...

Happiness is having a laptop and a palm with network access while sitting in boring meetings.

ack

Monday's...I forgot how much I hate them.

Giants

Yeah, the Giants won 5 -1. We had a great time last night.

SF Giants Bound

I'm all about entertainment value and slacking today.....

In a matter of hours I'll be at Pac Bell Park for my first home game of the season. Ahh, I can smell the Garlic Fries now. Go Giants!

Eric, welcome to the SF Bay.

The Ideal MP3 Stereo Component

Well, as you may have guessed I recently completed a project that involved ripping my entire CD collection dating back to 1983. It is something in the neighborhood of 1000+ CD's. No more getting up to switch CD's...I have my entire music library at my finger tips. Now my music collection resides on a secure server on my internal network and I am looking for the ultimate MP3 Stereo Component.

There are devices that let you hook up your PC to a conventional amplifier, but they don't allow you to control the music from the amp. Similarly, there are PC component devices that hook up to the amp and allow you to create and control MP3 playlists while reading the music off of a LAN.

However, there is not a single device currently on the market that is WiFi enabled via 802.11b (thus avoiding the need for a 50ft ethernet cable to the nearest switch), allows the creation/reading of playlists stored on the network, and plays music from the LAN. That sort of device is the holy grail. It really shouldn't be all that complicated to build.

Do you know of any devices that fit the bill? Let me know.

The Mercedes Unimog

Here it is the 1959 Unimog. Thanks Bruce for emailing me the photo.

Humboldt Vacationing

Well, I just got back from my alumni reunion in Humboldt. The boys of EZ know how to throw a banquet. It was four days of non-stop hiking, partying, and socializing with old friends. I think I managed to get 6 hours of sleep in 72 hours. I am just beginning to recover.

The only downside was the loss of Marino's in a fire last year. There's nothing left but an empty lot...very depressing. An old haunt from my days of college, it was a place I loved to go to for happy hour.

I was saying that I am too old to keep doing this every year, but I know I will still be doing this until it takes me a full week to recover. In the course of a few days I made vacation plans that will last the entire summer. I am all about vacation planning now.

I also took my first ride in a Unimog. My friend Bruce just picked one up. It really is the ultimate SUV. I must get one.

I'll be posting some pictures tonight.

Negooney Goo Goo

Eric....Happy Birthday! (albeit a day late)

San Diego...it was interesting

Well my trip to San Diego was fast paced, sleep deprived, and fun. In one whirlwhind 48 hour fly down and drive back experience I visited/partied with friends and family until 1 AM with only 3 hours sleep from the night before, picked up a car and delivered it to my folks in Monterey. You know, the sort of thing someone that was still in their early 20's might do...only this time at my age I got sick...ack.

I did do something that was really cool. On the drive up north I managed to meet up with good friend from my days @ Humbodlt, Eric and his family. We did the coordinate-o-coordinates via cell phone thing and met up in Coalinga in the late afternoon.

Pretty interesting experience...chatted about a bunch of things including those funky hazy days of Humboldt...some of the stuff dates back almost 10 years. Incredible. Time really starts to fly as you get older and work insane hours.

So, what's my excuse?

My lack of posting as of late can be attributed to not getting enough sleep and being sick. In case you may be wondering. sorry.