Geek

jpnearl.com is moving to a new host. This blog entry will only appear on the old host. If you see it, then you’re still looking at the old location of jpnearl.com. Your ISP will catch up with the internet within 72 hours. 🙂

See you soon!

Update (3:10 PM EST): I’ve decided to wait until after our trip to Florida to do this maintenance. I need to pack first and I can’t be going away with my blogging software in flux! 🙂

I took a few moments to finish up a project I’ve been wanting to do. Using an extra webcam, an old blue and white PowerMac G3 and some nifty software, may I take a moment to introduce our “weathercam”.

This is a view of our backyard. Why did I do this? Because I can.

jpnearl.com is up and down like a yo-yo again today. I’ve been trying to post a blog entry, complete with pictures, since 9:00 a.m. this morning and have not been successful. I find this frustrating. Hopefully things will be better tonight.

We’ve used this hosting company for a long time. I think I’m ready to move to a new company though, at least for this site. Since I’m such a Mac Fan, I really want to move to a hosting company that uses Mac-based servers. Not that I have anything against Linux but if I’m going to drink the kool-aid, I might as well drink it in gallons.

So I apologize if the site has been wonky for the past couple of days. I hope to have the problem fixed soon.

Tonight’s “Heroes”. Amazing. Unbelievable. The best episode yet! That’s what good television is all about.

And no Nikki/Jessica two weeks in a row!

Yay!

I have made an absolutely fabulous discovery on the internet. It’s called In2TV. It’s AOL’s free video streaming service. It has a TON of classic shows that you can watch on your computer.

Now I’m going to say that I like this service very much. I’ve already watched a number of episodes of “Alice” (from various seasons so that I could get all versions of the theme song stuck in my head), the unaired pilot of “Gilligan’s Island” with two secretaries named Ginger and Bunny, an unaired episode of the series “Aquaman” and early “Superman” episodes. And I just discovered In2TV last night around midnight.

Unfortunately, it’s an AOL product so naturally it’s not done as well as it could be. For example, you can download many of the shows to your computer in DVD quality and watch them in full-screen. The bad news is that AOL decided to utilize Windows-exclusive software to do that, so you can’t do it from a Mac or Linux computer. Non-Windows users are forced to watch a smaller picture as it’s streamed and they can’t save the file. From what I can tell (since this is a Macinhouse), Windows users can download the files and watch them full-screen but they expire in a couple of years and you’re limited to the In2TV player, so there’s no transferring to an iPod or anything.

Now this service may have been around for a while and you may already know about it, but I’m hooked. In fact, I’ve become so excited about streaming video over the internet that I’ve also started downloading more videos on iTunes in the process. Those we can watch full screen on our Macs (all bow before Apple).

So get over to In2TV for complete Visual Lavinzation.

Update 10:20 a.m.: OMG they have “V: The Series”! OMG.

I’m not a morning person. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I barely speak English before noon. But in an effort to be a worthy, contributing member to society, I’ve been getting up around 7:30, even though my first class isn’t until 11:00. After getting up I usually mess around on the computer, feed the cat and watch The Golden Girls for a bit before getting in the shower and officially starting my day.

As a quick aside here, I must say I don’t understand those who don’t shower first thing in the morning. I am not awake, functional or pleasant if I have not showered in the morning. It’s the way I wake up. Those that don’t shower aren’t bad people, I just don’t understand how they can get started with their day. That’s all.

Anyway, this morning my mother called to reschedule our planned outing for this evening. I was already awake but I could tell she was hesitant to call me because she knows how I can be in the morning. While we were talking I noticed that the call was full of static. This has happened on and off for the past couple of days, since the completion of my wiring projects in the cellar.

So before I took a shower, before I was dressed and before I was speaking English, I rewired the phone connection to the outside world (including making custom cables), installed a shelf in the server room and relocated all our network equipment to the new shelf.

Now there’s no more static on the phone, the internet is faster and life in general is good.

And I haven’t even showered yet. Viva la productivity!

I am sitting on the floor of the new music studio in the basement. I was told today by our contractor that all that’s left to do is install the doors on Monday and it’ll be all done. Earl and I are putting in the few ceiling tiles that haven’t been put in yet and laying down carpet. By the end of the weekend I will have moved most of my stuff in here.

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been pulling wire through the walls over the past couple of weeks. I’m typing this blog entry on one of the new network connections. This is very exciting to a geek like me.

I can’t wait to play show and tell with pictures soon. 🙂

I’ve upgraded my blogging software. If something acts a little wonky, please drop me a line and let me know and I’ll see what I can do to fix it.

This new version of MovableType should make the commenting process a little less painful for my gentle readers. If I don’t know who you are, I’ll have to approve you once or twice. Once I know who you are you’ll get through without my having to look down your shorts first. Unless you want me to.

Oh, I’ve also fixed my online status button for AOL/.Mac chatting. Just click that little button on the right side of the page for more information. If you want to say hello over IM, that’s the instant messenger I use the most. Yahoo! makes me nervous for some reason. If you’re using AOL, you can chat with any .Mac subscriber without jumping through hoops, you just need to put in the entire .Mac e-mail address for the AOL screen name. Technology is cool like that.

Gaming Sunday.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I originally had plans to go visit my sister and my dad and stepmother in Syracuse today. However, Mother Nature decided that we needed to have everything coated in ice and snow, so we thought it’d be best if we stayed at home and treat today as one of those winter-time January Sundays.

We’ve spent the entire day playing “Project Gotham Racing 3” on our Xbox360.

I’ve become quite good at not dropping f-bombs while racing the streets of New York in my Astin Martin or my Corvette. Earl, on the other hand, drops blue words like candy. Always the humorist, Tom puts his ears back when he hears the profanity. His latest exclaimation was “Where the fsck is the seat belt?”, referring to the fact that he had ripped the steering wheel controller right off the table it was clamped to and had tried to pound the pedal assembly through the floor.

I am very grateful that I decided to buy the Xbox360 instead of the new Wii for our household Christmas present this year, because I’m positive that a Wii controller would have sailed through one of the family room windows or the screen of the television within the first 48 hours of playing.

We’ve always been proud of the way we’ve decorated our house, including the family room. I can’t wait to see what the new gamer chairs we have our eyes on add to the ambience.

As I just crossed across the room to go to the restroom, Earl promptly barked out “Don’t cross in front of me! I’ll hit ya!” Now that’s the love I always talk about.

I was chatting with my sister and getting ready to do some web site work on my PowerBook when all of a sudden “it” happened. The fan in my PowerBook kicked on and started making a really funky noise.

It sounded crunchy.

Panicked, I abruptly ended the conversation with my sister and powered down the PowerBook, hoping it would stop making this awful noise I was hearing.

My heart sank.

I love my PowerBook. I have had many computers over the past 25 years and I have to say that my PowerBook G4 has been my favorite. I can’t imagine replacing it. I can’t imagine getting rid of it. I shall get it fixed, it shall be as new and we shall be as one once again.

I turned into a Mac fanboy a couple of years ago. Back when I was a system administrator I was all about Linux and FreeBSD. I tolerated Windows on the desktop. I couldn’t stand the Mac I had to support, as it was running something called System 7. Mac OS X turned my opinion of Apple around and I haven’t looked back.

I don’t think I could ever part with my PowerBook. Ever. It’s my little computer baby.

I’m backing up my files now, with a fan blowing on it to keep it cool, thus keeping the internal fan from kicking on, and then I’m going to shut it down and work on the studio Mac Mini until I can find a way to get it fixed. But in the end, I will not be without my PowerBook. Ever.