Alan on Anything

Izod/Hot Wheels Indy 500 Truck Jump

2011-05-29T18:37:00.004-04:00

Ok, now this is pretty darn cool! If the embedded link isn't working for you, you can watch the video on YouTube.

Thanks to G. Rei for the tip.

Best Buy and Target: Which is cheaper?

2011-05-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

I like watching TV dramas - just not on TV. I like to watch my favorite TV shows as either digital download from iTunes (good for a quick fix) or on DVD when I want to watch a full season several episodes at a time.

Recently, I watched the pilot episode of The Good Wife which I downloaded as a free episode from iTunes at some point. The show was pretty good, so I bought episode two, and now three. With three episodes down on my hard drive and loaded into my iPad, it's time to start thinking about buying season one on DVD.

Interesting thing about pricing, I have a Target and a Best Buy in the same shopping complex, both of which have the season one DVD box set in stock. Best Buy is $10.00 cheaper than Target which is literally, right next door. Consider this:

Amazon: $37.47 (with overnight shipping)
Best Buy: $29.99
Target: $39.99

To be fair, Amazon is selling the DVD set at $25.49 for the box and next business day shipping is $11.98 which brings us up to $37.47. You might be calling "foul" since I put overnight shipping on the Amazon order. I don't think so. I want instant gratification, which means I'm going to drive to either Best Buy or Target to get the DVDs. The Amazon order with overnight shipping is the closest thing to that experience.

So, what did we learn here? Not that Target is out of touch of what their competition, the Best Buy right next door in this case, but, rather, it pays to be an educated customer. I would have walked into that Target and purchased The Good Wife season 1 for $39.99 blissfully unaware that it will be $10.00 cheaper if I buy it next door.

I think to save myself some time searching the Best Buy for the DVD box, I'll order the set online and then go pick it up.

Windows 7 And IPv4 Ping

2011-05-25T23:33:00.002-04:00

"Ping" is the IT go-to tool for testing basic network connectivity. In Windows XP and earlier, the default TCP/IP protocol is IP version 4, or IPv4. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the default TCP/IP protocol is IP version 6, or IPv4.

If you ping a Windows 7 workstation from another Windows 7 workstation, the default behavior is to respond with the IPv6 address. That's great, unless you're still working in an IPv4 shop. To force Windows 7 boxes to respond with the IPv4 address, use the following ping switch from the Windows 7 command prompt:

c:\> ping -4 [localhost]

Where [localhost] is the machine name of the PC you want to ping. When you type the command in, don't type the left or right brackets.

You should get a result similar to my example below:

(Click the above screen shot to see a larger version of it.)

The first ping command above is the IPv6 response when I ping my local Windows 7 workstation. The second ping command, the one with the "-4" switch, returns the IPv4 address for the same Windows 7 workstation.

For more help with the Windows 7 ping command, type the following in a command prompt window:

c:\> ping /?

Blogger Templates Upgraded

2010-12-02T22:47:00.000-05:00

At some point, I'll have to do a rant on whether or not Facebook has effectively killed the personal blog (like this one) or not.

In the meantime, I'm just having fun playing with the new templates and trying to find something that will work on my smartphone blog, Smartphone Fanatics.

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-31T09:20:00.005-04:00

During all of today's parades, picnics, and all sorts of summer kick-off merriment, don't forget to take a minute and remember all of the brave men and women of our armed forces who have given then their lives in the service of our Great Nation so that we can all live free.

Thank you!

That Kicked Ass!

2010-04-25T00:54:00.003-04:00

I just had a chance to see Kick-Ass the movie and it was awesome! If you are a comic book fan you need to see this movie.

WARNING: This is not a movie you take your kids to see! I was kind of appalled to see a kid of no more than 12 or 13 in the 10:25pm showing of the movie!

Was it violent? You betcha. Was it full of gun play and graphic violence? Check. Was it a comedy and summer super hero action film rolled all into one? Hell yes!

"24"

2010-04-12T21:57:00.001-04:00

To the writers of FOX's "24":

THAT TOTALLY SUCKED!

Kick-Ass The Movie

2010-04-10T16:10:00.003-04:00

It has been a long time since I've been in a comic book store, but apparently a cult classic is coming to the big screen next weekend.

WARNING: This is NOT a movie for kids. As if the name didn't tell you that already, the R-rating should.

Kick-Ass (I'm not thrilled with the name, by the way) is the story about what might happen if ordinary folks like you or I tried to become super hero crime fighters. Think of Kick-Ass as the anti-comic book super hero summer movie. It won't be a super block buster like Spiderman, Bat-Man, or Iron Man, but it will garner support of comic shop going geeks (yes, even the retired ones like me) everywhere.

The think that I like about this movie is that the events of the film could really happen if someone was crazy enough to try it. Think about it. Bruce Wayde and Tony Stark don't have any super powers; yet Bat-Man and Iron Man are just two of the hottest comic book properties making the rounds. And that is why I've always liked "regular" superheros too - because, just maybe, it could happen in real life.

Kick-Ass hits theaters this coming Friday, April 16th. You can check out the trailers on the Apple QuickTime website.

FOX Cancels '24'

2010-03-28T20:31:00.002-04:00

Season 8 will be the final season for Jack Bauer and the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). It has been a fun ride and I"m glad to see the show going out on a high note.

While yet another on of my favorite shows is going off the air without something to replace it, Howard Gordon has stated that the writers are looking to giving Jack an adventure on the big screen with a story unfolding in Europe.

Check out THRFeed.com for all the details.

[Via THRfeed.com...]

BSG The Plan / Razor Soundtrack is Available

2010-02-25T20:26:00.003-05:00

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan / Razor, the last official Bear McCreary Battlestar Galactica soundtrack, was released this past Tuesday. This soundtrack completes the five volume set of music from SyFy's popular TV show and TV movies.

If you haven't read about this latest record, you can learn more about it here and here.

Amazon delivered my copy of the disc yesterday and I have really been enjoying it so far! I love the work with the taiko drums. It doesn't hurt when you also have Scott Ian doing some of the guitar work for you either.

I have a number of instant favorite tracks on this album, including:

Apocalypse (Theme from "The Plan")
Attack on the Scorpion Shipyards
Apocalypse, Part I
Mayhem on the Colonies
Husker in Combat

The album will eventually make it's way into the iTunes Store. Until then, you can get the disc from Amazon for $12.99 + shipping.

While Mr. McCreary has stated that this will be the last of the "canon" music from the show, he has left the door open for SyFy and La La Land Records to commission an additional disc of tracks that never made it into the show or early concepts of tracks that did. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but over the last few years, I have grown to like McCreary's work so I'd probably spring for such a disc.

OCS Journal: Windows 7 Client

2010-02-14T21:56:00.003-05:00

What is the point of having a Windows Server if you don't have some clients?

I don't know either, so to wrap up the OCS 2007 mission of this weekend, I've run up a Windows 7 Enterprise workstation.

Whoo-hoo! Isn't virtualization fun?!

OCS Journal: Features and Required Roles

2010-02-14T21:41:00.002-05:00

I've downloaded a copy of the Office Communications Server 2007 planning guide from the Microsoft website.

If you are trying to wrap your head around just what an OCS server does, then you need to read this document, specifically the introduction section to this document. There are 12 steps that you need to work your way through to build an OCS server.

Step 1: Determine Key Planning Considerations has a short discussion about the various features that are in OCS 2007 and what other server roles are required to support them. I have to say that I'm glad that I don't see "Exchange Server" anywhere on the list of things that I'll need. I don't have one on my network (physical or virtual) and I wasn't looking forward to having to set one up just to get things like web conferencing and IM services going.

You can take a look at the Communications Server functionality mapped to server roles and clients table on the Microsoft TechNet website.

OCS Journal: Setting the Foundation

2010-02-14T17:30:00.006-05:00

I've been meaning to start playing around with Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 for a while now, but just never seemed to get around to it. A recent Help Desk disaster at the office motivated me to get things in gear.

OCS 2007 can do a lot of cool things, but for right now, I'm mostly interested in the Live Meeting web conferencing features. I'll add in more features of OCS 2007 when I can. And I'm sure that at some point, I'm going to have to make the jump from a virtual machine to a few physical PC servers. I'll have to be prepared to move this experiment back to the office at some point down the road so I can get all of the software I'm going to need running on a real PC hardware.

Please wait while bla bla bla is installing...

I think IT folks spend 75% of their careers watching software install on computers. And today, I'm putting up more hours watching software install.

Installing, configuring, and running Office Communication Server 2007, (OCS 2007) is more of a science project than anything else. I'm running my experiment inside a Parallels virtual machine on my Apple Mac Pro and a RAID 0 disk array so I don't lose all of my work to disk corruption. (The Parallels disk drive file is going to get huge!) The following is a list of my hardware and software.

On the Mac side of things:

Apple Mac Pro running Mac OS X Server 10.6.2 Snow Leopard
6GB of RAM, 750GB RAID 0 disks
Parallels Desktop 4.0

On the Windows side of things:

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise + Service Pack 2
Internet Information Services 7.0
SQL Server 2005 + Service Pack 3

The Story of the Film So Far...

So far, the install has been going as expected. I have the Windows Server setup as my domain controller running DNS on my virtual network. I have also assigned a static IP address to the server so all of the other machines on my network will be able to see it by IP and by name (either using DHCP (virtual machines) or Unix hosts files (on my Mac boxes).

One weird thing about the install of SQL Server was that it was complaining that IIS wasn't installed. As you can see from the rather lame screen shot of the IIS 7.0 default install index.htm page, IIS 7 was installed before I started the SQL Server installer. I'm guessing that is just because SQL Server 2005 is older than Windows Server 2008 and, well, we all know how that goes. I should note that you will need to install Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later of SQL Server 2005 if you are going to run on Windows Server 2008. To install the SP for SQL Server, install the base product, and then use Windows/Microsoft Update to download and install the latest update. If you want to stick with a specific service pack, then you will need to download it from Microsoft's Downloads site at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads

If you have access to SQL Server 2008, and I do, I was just too lazy to download it, you can probably get around the IIS warning from SQL Server all together.

Side Note:
If you plan on screwing around with Microsoft's software, you'll definitely want to check out the Microsoft TechNet Direct program. For $250 per year, you gain access to all of Microsoft's software, for development purposes only. It's a really nice investment if you are an IT professional or just want to play one on TV.

For now, I'm in Windows Update hell as the updates for SQL Server, Visual Studio, Office, and all the rest download and install on my Windows Server.

I'll post more about my efforts to setup and install a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 as time allows.

In the mean time, if you want to learn more about Office Communication Server 2007, you can checkout the Microsoft website.

MacBook Undergoes Surgery, Full Recovery Expected

2010-02-14T14:58:00.003-05:00

I woke this morning to find that a small piece of the top surface of my white Apple MacBook had cracked!

The cracked plastic shard, about the size of a tooth pick, formed along the small ridge just above the IR port. The crack in the plastic likely came from constant daily use as the crack formed right where my right palm would come to rest on the case. The crack formed, just by coincidence, right where the nub on the monitor casing meets the top surface when the lid is closed.

With a small dab of Crazy Glue, and a steady hand, I was able to glue the shed of plastic back on to the Mac. The good news is that the plastic piece never broke completely off the Mac. The bad news is that if the crack really did form because of the constant pressure on the case, it will likely happen again.

Not much will change in the short term, but in the long term, I think I just decided that my next MacBook won't be the current 13-inch white edition. Rather, I will likely get the 13-inch metal MacBook Pro or the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Both of these Macs are beautiful pieces of hardware, and have the price tag to go along with it, however, I love my Macs and I do use them every day. Having hardware with such a well though out design, and metal case, should me happy for a long time to come.

Oh, and about my MacBook pulling through surgery? Well, in the time it has taken to write this blog post, the glue has set and we're ready to rock and roll again.

Thank You Coca-Cola!

2010-02-14T12:10:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the Coca-Cola Company, I'm getting a "free" DVD box set of Bones season 4. I had to collect a lot of bottle cap points, but I was going to drink all of that Diet Coke anyway, so in a way, the Bones box set really is free.

If you don't want to drink cases of Coca-Cola products, and just buy the Bones box set, you can get it on Amazon.com.

Feelin' Funcky

2010-01-16T11:46:00.002-05:00

Been on the wrong side of right for the last few days. I've gotta shake this funky feeling. Maybe some retail therapy will help.

24: New York Gets Jacked

2010-01-09T15:02:00.003-05:00

Sunday night. January 17th. 9PM. Think you've seen "24" before? You don't know Jack.

24: More Backup On the Way

2010-01-04T21:20:00.003-05:00

When FOX's "24" kicks off season 8 on January 17th, Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) will get some extra backup at CTU's new headquarters from Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff).

Season 8's bad guys won't know what the frak hit 'em!

[Via The Watcher...]

Recording Session

2010-01-03T23:20:00.003-05:00

I've just finished tweaking GarageBand '09 which is part of Apple's iLife '09 product suite. It took me a while to get my iMic and GarageBand to play nice with each other after having upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard back in September, but I've got it working again.

Now, if I could only dream up a reason to play with GarageBand on a more regular basis...

Be Careful of What You Type: The Internet is Reading

2010-01-03T10:33:00.010-05:00

As you know, I have recently joined the Twitter and Facebook social media sites as a means to help promote my smartphone blog, SmartphoneFanatics.com. (This post is just one of many on the subject of blog promotion with Facebook.) Tools like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are great ways for website operators to connect to their readers in ways that resonate with the readership. For example, I had one blog reader tell me that they only get their news from Twitter feeds!

I have also come to learn that social networking sites are much more than a tool for high school and college students to reach out to each other to figure out what to do tonight. These sites have been invaded by adults to reconnect with friends and family in ways that where not possible just years before.

Social networking sites have made a positive impact on the way we live personally and professionally. However; there appears to be a growing, equally negative, impact on people's lives from the use of social networking sites on the Internet.

Facebook, and other popular social media sites, have becoming powerful tools in law enforcement and legal proceeding. The most popular use for social networking appears to be in divorce proceedings. As blogger Perry L. Segal notes on the eDiscoveryCalifornia.com blog post, "Facebook, et al: Evidentiary Gold Mines", what we write on the "Social Internet" can come back and bite us in the rump.

"Tip: If a lawyer loves something, you'd better take note (unless it's you they love; in that case, demand a pre-nup...).

Let's put it this way. Yes, Twitter may change the way we live, but not necessarily the way you expect."

Time Magazine also ran an article on how divorce lawyers have been able to use sites life Facebook, as evidence in court proceedings. Consider this passage from Belinda Luscombe's "Facebook and Divorce: Airing the Dirty Laundry" from Time.com:

"Lawyers, however, love these sites, which can be evidentiary gold mines. Did your husband's new girlfriend Twitter about getting a piece of jewelry? The court might regard that as marital assets being disbursed to a third party. Did your wife tell the court she's incapable of getting a job? Then your lawyer should ask why she's pursuing job interviews through LinkedIn.

Opposing lawyers will press any advantage they have, and personal information on sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn is like decoded bulletins from enemy territory. "It's now just routine for us to go over with clients whether they have an active presence on the Web and if they Twitter or have a MySpace page," says Joseph Cordell of Cordell & Cordell, a domestic-relations law firm with offices in 10 states."

And you may want to think twice about posting photos to your social network of choice. Each of those photos carries with it a date and timestamp of when it was uploaded. It is also not outside of the realm of possibility that there could easily be embedded information in those photos containing other incriminating such as the date and time the photo was taken, what type of camera took the photo, and even the GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken.

Law enforcement is also turning to social networking sites. Assistant Professor of Law at the John Marshall Law School (Chicago), Colin Miller, writes on his blog that a Facebook wall post exonerated a robbery suspect.

Mr. Miller writes:

"A case out of New York, however, gives me my first opportunity to address the admissibility of evidence from a Facebook page. And indeed, it appears to be the first case in which a Facebook update has been used as alibi evidence.

According to Bradford, he was updating his Facebook page from a computer in his father's apartment in Harlem at the time of the robbery. Bradford's claim led the district attorney to subpoena Facebook for documentation that Bradford had updated his Facebook page from his father's apartment at the relevant time. The subpoena was successful as it uncovered that Bradford posted the message, "ON THE PHONE WITH THIS [...] CHICK [...]" at 11:49 a.m. on October 17th from his father's computer."

Mr. Collin reports that the defense attorney was happy that the information recorded by Facebook corroborated that the post came from the computer owned by the suspect's father.

The reality is that all computer network traffic on the Internet is traceable by a unique IP address and the computer's Media Access Control (MAC) serial number. (MAC serial numbers are not just for "Mac" computers made by Apple. MAC serial numbers, referred to as a MAC address, is used by any network connected device.) If law enforcement or legal counsel wants to know where a social networking post or photo came from, they will find out.

And students should think twice about what they post now as it could effect them in ways they did not imagine in the future. Consider an article written by Gabrielle Dunn for Emerson's The Berkeley Beacon news paper. In the September 13, 2007 article, Dunn writes:

"Emerson students should reconsider publicizing their illegal dealings - even those on Facebook.com - while living on campus, Emerson disciplinary officials say. Otherwise, they could end up like the two Northeastern University freshmen who were arrested after an undercover police officer overheard them offering drugs to fellow students from their dormitory window on Sept. 2.

Dean of Students Ronald Ludman said incriminating pictures and comments on Facebook.com can be used as evidence in disciplinary hearings, although the College does not yet use the web site to monitor student behavior. He cautioned students against posting anything they wouldn't on a traditional bulletin board, a hallway door or in the student newspaper.

"I don't recall the exact number, but [Facebook] was employed in at least a couple of student conduct cases last year," Ludman said in an e-mail message to The Beacon."

Being arrested for selling pot might be viewed as a "youthful indiscretion," but you would think that a someone who is going to college has some more common sense to post their illegal dealings on a social Internet site. Duh!

People really need to think twice before they click that "Post" button. Recall all the photos you've see on sites life MySpace or Facebook from wild parties where people are holding large red plastic cups and beer bottles? Those pictures will come back to haunt to you. With more people looking for jobs in a tight job market, perspective employers are enlisting more tools to help find the best candidates for the job. And social media sites are becoming a more important part of the interview background check process.

As MSNBC reports in their online article, "Job candidates getting tripped up by Facebook", people are getting turned down for jobs based on what they posted on Facebook, even if they are otherwise qualified for the job. The theory goes that by looking at social sites, perspective employers are getting a full picture of candidates beyond their resume and in-person job interview.

In the MSNBC story, Wei Du writes:

"Van Allen runs a company that recruits job candidates for hospitals and clinics across the country. With physicians in short supply, he was happy to come across the resume of a well-qualified young female psychiatrist.

As part of his due diligence check, Allen looked her up in Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, and found things that made him think twice.

“Pictures of her taking off her shirt at parties,” he said. “Not just on one occasion, but on another occasion, then another occasion.”

Concerned about those pictures, he called the candidate and asked for an explanation. She didn’t get the job."

The bottom line is that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are a great boon to communicating with friends, family, fans, and business associates. Just be careful about what the personal information that you fork over, write, and post on your site. It can come back an cause major headaches and embarrassment later on.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T20:58:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year Everybody! May 2010 be a good one!

What the &^#)(

2009-12-30T18:12:00.002-05:00

My wife, kids, and sister-in-law called me downstairs. Needless to say, I was a bit shocked by what I saw.

Disney/Pixar Up: Digital Disc

2009-12-26T19:40:00.003-05:00

My girls got a copy of Disney/Pixar's UP DVD for Christmas. The cool thing about this DVD, which I still haven't watched yet, is that the "deluxe" version of the single DVD comes with a second disc with a copy of the movie which you can unlock and copy to your Mac or PC for playback in Apple iTunes or Windows Media Player. (Why you would want to use WMP is beyond me, but hey, to each their own.)

We all know that I'm an Apple guy, so I'm planning on watching UP on my MacBook in iTunes, on my iPod touch, and the kids will be able to watch the movie over and over and over again on Apple TV without scratching the heck out of the DVD.

Not bad if I do say so myself. Just like the copy of Star Trek that I purchased recently, I think that these physical and digital packs are a good idea. I'm willing to pay a few dollars more over the single disc without digital download just to stretch my viewing dollar farther. Sure you can rip a DVD to a file that you can watch on your favorite mobile device, but an extra $5.00 vs 2+ hours to rip a DVD is a fair trade in my book.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T08:56:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas and Season's Greetings!

Facebook

2009-12-20T22:45:00.002-05:00

Ok, ok, you all win! I created an account on Facebook!

Bored

2009-12-20T15:34:00.002-05:00

Oh my God! I can't believe how bored I am today! I can't wait to get back to work and do something meaningful!

Yo, Joe!

2009-12-19T01:01:00.004-05:00

I've been a comic book fan for a long time and some of my most favorite characters are not superheros, but rather the men and women of America's special missions force: G.I. Joe.

IDW Publishing has picked up the rights to the comic book series of G.I. Joe following the adventures of the Joes from the 1980's era. The original G.I. Joe team have been around since the 1960's, and revamped a few times since the 1980's, it seems that the 3 3/4-inch figures have had an amazing staying power in the hearts and minds of boys (both young and old).

Over the last year I haven't really had much time for the Joes, or their Hasbro stable mates, the Transformers, but on a recent trip to the book store (I know, yes, print is dead) I found myself in the graphic novel section and saw that IDW had collected many of their 32-page monthly comics into a soft cover graphic novel. This practice isn't uncommon, but I think I've reached a stage in my collecting that single monthly issues are just no longer practical for me since after some 30 years (give or take a few) there just isn't space in the budget or the house for more books.

The best part about the new IDW series is that the great Larry Hama is come on board to help guide the series. Hama, for those who have been around for a long time, wrote many of the stores from the Marvel comic years and his name has been synonymous with Joe comics for years.

You can check out IDW's G.I. Joe titles and their full line of comics at the IDW website. And if you have an iPhone or iPod touch in your pocket, you will also be able to purchase IDW comics in digital forum using the IDW Comics application, available for free from the iTunes App Store [iTunes link].

Yo, Joe!

Two-Parters

2009-12-13T00:10:00.003-05:00

You know what the worst part about watching TV late at night is? Two-parters.

Take tonight for example. I'm watching an episode of Stargate SG-1 before heading off to bed. I get drawn into the episode. I'm watching the show on Hulu, a free Internet video on demand service, so I'm not watching the time because I know that show isn't going to end at the top of the hour like it would if I was watching broadcast TV.

And then, all of the sudden...BANG! "To be continued" pops up on the screen with absolutely no regard for the fact that it is after midnight. I mean, I can't walk away at this point! Nope, I'm going to have to crack another can of Diet Coke, and sit back for the next 43 minutes and 53 seconds to see what happens next.

2009-12-09T22:56:00.004-05:00

I just picked up to new music tracks over at the Apple iTunes Store. Finally, finally, Bear McCreary's works can be purchased from iTunes. While I already have all four seasons of the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks on disc, I sampled the tracks for Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel coming up on Syfy in 2010. (The pilot episode was released on DVD earlier this year.)

Since all of the Caprica music that has been released so far is all from a single episode, I'm reserving judgment on the music for the series. After all, I'm not a huge fan of the music from the Battlestar Galactica mini-series. (For the record, Mr. McCreary didn't compose the music, Richard Gibbs did.)

Anyway, long story short, if you like the drums in many of McCreary's Battlestar tracks, you'll want to listen to "Cybernetic Life Form Node" and "Zoe Awakens" as they have similar themes; not surprising as the show will deal with the rise of the Cylons. The foreshadowing musical queues in "Zoe Awakens" also reminds me of another McCreary soundtrack that I enjoyed; Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Wizkids Back In Action!

2009-11-28T18:30:00.010-05:00

I was just clearing out some of my old bookmarks in FireFox and ran across the bookmark for WizKids games. When last we talked about WizKids, things didn't look good as Topps had closed down the company. (Topps owned the WizKids brand at the time.)

Since then, a group of people have purchased the assets of WizKids and reactived the company, which includes some of old company's employees, and more importantly to us, a number of the old games too!

The focus seems to be on getting the Hero Clix game(s) out the door at all costs to start generating some revenue. The good news for fans of Pirates of the Spanish Main and Pirates of the Cursed Seas games is that they are looking to get that franchise back up and running. Look for news about Pirates in the second half of 2010. I know that sounds like a lone time to wait, but I'd rather wait another year to get the game back than to not get the game back at all.

"Q: Do you have plans for Pirates of the Cursed Seas?

A: Pirates is a very valuable part of the portfolio of product lines NECA purchased. We are considering new configurations on the Pirates line and will keep you in the know as to how that is progressing. I don’t expect any major announcements until mid-2010 but long-term, the Pirates line is part of our plans."

You can get all the details about what's up at the company over at the new WizKids website.

Star Trek 2-Disc DVD Pack with Digital Download

2009-11-28T17:27:00.005-05:00

Earlier this week I picked up a copy of J. J. Abram's Star Trek 2-disc DVD set. Normally I don't buy the 2-disc sets because I don't usually watch the bonus features, ok, I'm cheap, but this time I decided to spring the extra cash.

The 2-disc DVD set cost $24.99 at the local Target; the single DVD edition cost $19.99. For the extra $5.00 I got the bonus DVD and a "free" digital download of the widescreen edition of the movie from the iTunes store. It was the iTunes download that hooked me.

I wanted to try out the digital movie download scene before, but I stayed away because I like the flexibility to watch my movies on whatever device happens to be handy or the right one for the trip I'm going on. Normally, this means that I get the DVD and then rip it with Handbreak into a file that I can watch on a Mac, a PC, my Palm Pre...you get the idea. I had tried the digital download that was included with The Dark Knight, the latest movie in the Batman franchise. I didn't like it at all because you where limited to a Windows PC and Windows Media Player, and here is the kicker, you still had to pay for the download (it was $2, but it is the principle of the thing).

With Star Trek, you insert the bonus disc into your DVD drive, launch iTunes, and enter the special redemption code found inside your DVD case. Once the code has been validated, the movie download will start. The full movie is about 1.90GB and you should backup the movie to an external hard drive and/or a data DVD as you will only be allowed to use your download code once.
The digital download can be played on any iTunes Store authorized device including up to 5 of your Mac OS X or Windows PCs, any iPhone, and the iPod touch, the iPod Classic, iPod 5th Gen.

It's Twilight Time

2009-11-28T08:50:00.004-05:00

I was talking to Jen this morning and found another reason to mock the Twilight Saga: apparently, the vampires don't actually bite people. They're friendly vampires, so to speak.

WTF?! Damn gay ass vampires. Besides, this one looks like a little girl with to much white foundation and red lipstick.

Travel Channel Ghost Adventures

2009-11-27T22:04:00.004-05:00

Just finished watching the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures Remington Arms episode, which was filmed over the summer in Bridgeport, CT.

You can read a little bit more about the show on the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures website. I'm not much for shows, books, or movies about the paranormal or UFOs. My philosophy is that if it is real, we shouldn't be messing with it. If it isn't real, why waste your time with it. (I will say that I'm a fan of the first Ghostbusters movie; but I never really liked E.T.)

Needless to say, there wasn't much to report about the Remington factory that hasn't already been documented by historians. Additionally, they on camera folks did say that they where in a "rough part of town", but made no mention of all the homeless people who live in the area. So, at the end of the hour, I left like I had been watching one of the old Heraldo Revera specials about the Titanic and Al Capone rather than a scientific analysis to prove or disprove the existence of paranormal activity at the site. I guess I was looking for a little something more along the lines of Discovery Channel's Mythbusters where the results are either "Confirmed", "Busted" or "Plausible."

After watching the show, and knowing how bad the area is in terms of dilapidation at the site and the homeless folks who no doubt in habit the expansive facility, I'm going with "Busted".

Where Pumpkin Pie Comes From

2009-11-26T14:43:00.002-05:00

Black Friday Tech Sales

2009-11-26T09:04:00.002-05:00

Here is my list of 2009 Black Friday sales that I though where interesting. I'm not a big Black Friday fanatic, but I might get out of bed earlier than I normally would for some of these items.

Check out SmartphoneFanatics.com...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T09:03:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my family and friends! Have safe, fun filled, relaxing day!

"Serenity"?

2009-11-23T12:05:00.003-05:00

Argh!

I've had the freakin' FireFly theme song, written by series creator Joss Whedon, composed by Greg Edmonson, and sung by Sonny Rhodes stuck in my head all day!

"Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me..."

Click here if you are brave enough to listen to the tune.

It has been a while since I last watched an episode of FireFly, so I'm not sure why my brain decided that this particular piece of music needed some play time.

There are worse songs that could be stuck in my head. OK, back to me trying to not work while I'm on "vacation."

Thanksgiving Vacation Log (Updated)

2009-11-22T10:08:00.005-05:00

I was told that I need to take vacation time by my HR department. I'm not sure why. I only have 118 hours remaining for 2009.

I started my "Thanksgiving Holiday" last Friday afternoon at noon. The first few days have been just spending time with the kids.

Today's plan includes raking the yard (again!) and fixing a broken mini blind in Meghan's room.

Exciting, huh? I know. Tomorrow's game plan is even more exciting! I need to buy some more socks!

Update:
"Not Me" was playing with my tape measure so I was unable to measure the width of Meghan's window. I took a shot at 30-inches but it was a swing and a miss. I'll have to get a new tape measure and then start the search for mini blinds that actually fit her window. All of that and new socks! Whoo-hoo!

Hulu To Remain Free

2009-10-29T22:16:00.002-04:00

Looks like News Corp came to it's collective senses and has announced that their Hulu steaming media site will remain a free, ad-supported destination on the Internet.

SlashFilm reports:

"a high ranking News Corp. executive expressed skepticism over their current strategy of making content available for free with ads. He went on to say that Hulu will probably start charging for content in 2010. Many in the tech blogosphere have already dismissed the exec’s rantings, and now EW has the official word (via a Hulu insider) that the exec had no idea what he was talking about. Their source stressed that hulu is “steadfastly commited to free content”, and that premium offerings down the line will build upon what the site already offers."

[Via SlashFilm...]

"Low" Ratings?! Huh?

2009-09-27T22:07:00.003-04:00

I don't claim to be a media expert when it comes to watching television and the ratings scale used to determine a show's success or not, but I'm not sure I'd call 2.6 million viewers "abysmal." The folks at The Live Feed seem to think so.

When you look at how fractured a typical person's attention is, it is a miracle that people manage to get anything done (like blogging about a TV show with "abysmal" ratings - you have to be able to laugh at yourself).

I hope that FOX isn't ready to give up on Dollhouse just yet. There is plenty of eye candy in the show, and Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) is suppose to play a character starting this season. Who would want to miss that?

GO Contact Sync

2009-09-27T20:55:00.004-04:00

For the life of me, I can't figure out why Google doesn't sync contacts with Microsoft Outlook. Google offers Google Calendar Sync for Outlook users, so why not offer a tool for sync'ing contact?

Enter WebGear with their free open source utility, GO Contact Sync. Go Contact Sync allows you to sync the contacts in your Google Gmail account with Microsoft Outlook. Sounds pretty cool. I'm downloading the tool now so I can try it out. I'm really not looking at having to mess around with a .csv file export and import again.

You can learn more about GO Contact Sync on the WebGear website.

Update: SPF360 Podcast

2009-09-21T18:45:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I put the question out there as to whether or not there was interest in a podcast for my blog, SmartphoneFanatics.com. I have been listening to and considering your comments and I am preparing to move forward with a new technology podcast called "SPF360".

Until I'm ready to go, let me whet your appetite for the show with the new logo that I've cooked up.

SPF360 is a two part name: "SPF" as in Smartphone Fanatics and "360" as in a 360-degree look at what is going on in mobile technology. This show will allow me to cover not only products and services from Palm, but also include things like Windows Mobile phones from HTC, Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, and any tablets or netbooks that may be in the works.

Videos Can Watch Themselves!

2009-09-12T19:37:00.002-04:00

As it turns, out, episodes of Stargate SG-1 can watch themselves! Ok, they can watch themselves if they have a little help from you.

I had a rough night trying to sleep last night and so I turned to Hulu for a little sci-fi action to help pass the time. Turns out that I fell asleep before the end of the episode I started watching was over. So, in a way, yes, Josh, you are sort of right, SG-1 episodes can watch themselves.

Ha! I'm Still Computing!

2009-09-10T15:00:00.001-04:00

Three hours after my oral surgery and I'm back online! Six seasons of Stargate SG-1 on Hulu.com aren't going to watch themselves you know!

First Impressions for Apple's Fall '09 iPod Event

2009-09-10T08:51:00.003-04:00

I watched Apple's iPod event last night. It was great to see Steve Jobs take the stage to deliver this year's presentation.

I've posted my first impressions of iTunes 9.0 and it's integration with the iPod touch over on SmartphoneFanatics.com.

The bottom line is that I gulped down the new Apple Cool-Aid(TM) and upgraded to iTunes 9.0 and iPhone OS 3.1 for iPod touch after watching the presentation. I'm disappointed that the new iPod touch doesn't have a camera (like the new iPod nano has) and that Apple chose to once again lock out Palm's Pre from being able to sync with iTunes (hey, Palm programmed the Pre to announce itself as an iPod after all!).

At the end of the day, I'm still very much a fan of both Apple and Palm, however, this time, I simply though that Apple's new software features where more worthwhile that losing the ability to sync my Pre to iTunes was worth it.

I'm On Twitter

2009-09-06T22:46:00.002-04:00

OK, before everyone gets all on my case about being a part of the death of in-person communication, I want to state right now that I'm not "microblogging" about shopping for tomatoes or chronicling my adventures in eating meals.

The only reason why I opened a Twitter account is to drive blog posts from SmartphoneFanatics.com to the site in an effort to drive more traffic to my mobility blog.

Interested parties can get their mobile tweeting on at:

http://www.twitter.com/spf360

Pirates: New Massive Ships Added

2009-09-06T22:29:00.005-04:00

I like to collect all sorts of cool stuff (read: crap). So it is no surprise that I've run up quite a tab in my pursuit of collectible trading card games (read: cardboard heroine or plastic heroine depending on the game and card media). The most recent game that I am collecting cards for is Pirates of the Spanish Main, which later became known as Pirates of the Cursed Seas later on in it's run. Currently, the game, and it's publisher, WizKids Games, are out of commission. (The WizKids Games imprint is owned by Topps, Inc.)

On a recent trip to a local Target, I picked up a few Pirates of the Cursed Seas: Savage Shores box sets knowing at the time that I wouldn't get another chance to buy them. The cool thing about those Savage Shores "Scavenger Pack" sets (ironically named, don't you think?) I picked up included plates for building two new massive 10-mast ships: the Celtic Fury and the Shui Xian.

After pulling out my shoe box with my Pirates cards in it, I gleefully put together my two new massive ships!

Meghan, of course, wanted to play so we did. I gave her a total of 40 build points to my 30. At the end of the day, the Shui Xian proved too powerful and rules the Savage Shores; for now.

If you need a checklist for Savage Shores, you can check out the one that MiniatureTrading.com has posted on their website.

Snow Leopard On Week Later

2009-09-06T08:50:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I picked up copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 and Snow Leopard Server 10.6. I installed Snow Leopard on my 13-inch white MacBook and Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro.

Both upgrades completed without any issues and as far as I can tell, I have not discovered any software incompatibilities that has prevented me from being able to to use either computer. I did skip installing QuickTime 7 on my MacBook which prevents Flip4MacWMV from working properly. I'm going to wait until a QuickTime X version of the plug-in is available. I also didn't install Rosetta on my MacBook since I wanted to only use Intel compatible applications.

For the MacBook, my every day computer, I purchased the Mac Box Set. The box set includes not only the latest copy of Mac OS X but also includes the latest versions of the iLife and iWork productivity suites. I'm really enjoying all the cool new features of iPhoto '09. Since I just returned from a family vacation to Lake George, I've been playing with the geotagging and Google Maps integration. It is really awesome to click a button on a photo and have a push pin dropped on a map showing you where the photo was taken.

Snow Leopard on the MacBook is working well. My Mac is booted up and ready for action in about 20 seconds flat. Applications do seem to be loading faster than they did with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) or Tiger (10.4). There is a noticeable speed difference running Snow Leopard Server on the Mac Pro. Everything is super zippy. I'm guessing that the huge speed difference is because of the amount of memory in both systems. The white MacBook tops out at 2GB of RAM which is how much I have in the notebook. The new 13-inch MacBook Pro notebooks top out at 8GB of RAM and there is talk of a new 13-inch MacBook on the way. The Mac Pro has 6GB of RAM.

At this point I haven't run into any trouble. If you are one of the people who have to have the latest software as soon as it comes out, you will be happy to know that installing Snow Leopard should be a painless upgrade. The same thing is true for Snow Leopard Server. That said, if your more of the test the water before you jump in the pool type, you should know that Apple is already working on a Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.1 update which should become available in a few weeks.

More details visit the Apple website.

Are You Ready For 'SPF360"?

2009-08-24T22:11:00.007-04:00

It has been a long time since I recorded and published a mobile tech podcast. There area a number of contributing factors as to why that is , however there is no need to address them here.

Who needs a small, independent mobile tech podcast when you have the massively popular podcasts from GDGT, Treo/PreCentral, and WMExperts? Turns out that there really is room for an independent podcast hosted by a self-proclaimed mobility addict.

Over the last week or so, I have been playing around with the idea of what a new podcast might look like. GrassNet's Tech Talk originally focused on computer technology, and after a retooling, focused on Palm OS devices. It was a quick and easy transition to take over the 1SRC Palm-Powered podcast some years ago since the focus was almost identical to Tech Talk.

After sitting on the side lines for most of the summer, I'm seriously considering starting the SPF360 podcast over on SmartphoneFanatics.com (SPF being the abbreviation for SmartPhoneFanatics and 360 as in "taking a 360 degree look at mobile computing). I like the idea of SPF360 since it allows me to talk about not only Palm's smartphones, but HTC's amazing looking phones, RIM's BlackBerry, Apple's iPhone, and all the reset. And because I would also be taking that 360-degree view of mobile technology, it still leaves the door open to talk about the iPod touch, Microsoft's Zune HD (for, you know, like the 12 or so people who are going to buy one), netbooks (can anyone say Palm webOS powered Foleo II?), and the list can go on and on.

At this point, I'm not sure if this is going to be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly show. One reason why I've been taking most of the summer off from podcasting has to do with my work schedule and the amount of overtime I'm logging to meet project deadlines on time. I think that the days of 45-60 minute shows are over for now; but a 15-30 minute show could be pulled off with enough Diet Coke. =)

So what do you think, kids? Does this "sound" like a worth while project? I'm interested in hearing your feedback on what content should be included in a new podcast venture and how to market it so that it goes some visibility, and more importantly, show subscribers!

Windows 7 Libraries

2009-08-23T23:25:00.004-04:00

Windows 7 introduces a new feature called Libraries. Mac OS X users don't have a similar feature, however, I think I can argue that a Library is really a glorified Windows shortcut or Mac OS X alias.

According to the Windows Seven Forums website, a Library can be thought of in this way:

"Libraries let you access and arrange items from one or more folders quickly without moving them from their original locatation. Libraries themselves don't store your files or folders. Instead, they point to different folders on your hard disk, or on an external drive attached to your computer. This gives you easy access to a category of files no matter where they are stored."

I'm glad I looked this information up because I've been playing with Windows 7 Enterprise on my company issued Dell Latitude D630 and it has been driving me nuts that I'm getting dropped into my Libraries (public and my profile's) but I can't get to the Windows 7 "My Documents" folder for my Windows 7 profile.

Yes, Mac users, you are no doubt getting ready to boo and hiss the Windows crowd. I guess once you figure out how to use the feature it can be handy. By the way, Windows 7 users, you can learn how to add more folders to your Windows 7 Libraries by reading this thread over on the aforementioned Windows Seven Forums.

Windows 7 Ultimate on a Mac Pro

2009-08-09T21:54:00.005-04:00

Now that Microsoft Windows 7 has gone RTM (Release To Manufacturing) the software has reached the final milestone in it's software development cycle is is now officially available to select Microsoft customers. If you belong to Microsoft's TechNet program, you may be eligible to download a copy of the US English version of Windows 7. Company's who have signed on to qualifying volume license agreements can also download the software immediately. If you don't have access to Windows 7 today, you will be able to buy the commercial full and upgrade versions of Windows 7 starting on October 22, 2009.

The challenge for me will be to get the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Ultimate running on my Mac Pro. It shouldn't be too hard. The Mac Pro, like all of the other Intel based Macs, can use Apple's Boot Camp utility to boot non-Mac OS X operating systems like Windows or Linux. The only thing that may not be working yet is all of the hardware drivers. Sure, they worked with Windows XP and Vista, but Windows 7 is going to be a little bit different. I've installed Windows XP on my MacBook previously, so I'm familiar with the process. Just to make sure I'm kept honest, I will be following along with the directions for loading the pre-release version of Windows 7 as documented by the iClarified blog.

Later on, if I decided to install Parallels 4 on my Mac Pro, I'll be able to directly access and run Windows applications from inside Mac OS X without having to reboot the computer.

If you decide to take the plunge and install Windows 7 on your Intel based Mac, let us know how you make out by adding our comments below.

Happy Mac-ing!

UPDATE:

Now that I've installed Windows 7 Ultimate, I have discovered two things:
1. The current Boot Camp 2.1 drivers are being reported as being incompatible by Windows.
2. I've installed the 32-bit media, not the 64-bit media

I'll sit tight on the Apple Boot Camp issue until Apple updates the driver set to work correctly with Windows 7. At this point, I'm running without the Boot Camp drivers loaded and everything seems to be working - with the exception possibly being audio. I haven't tested that yet since I've got my speakers connected to my MacBook with iTunes blairing in the background.

As for the 32-bit vs. the 64-bit version of Windows, well, that was just my bad. I clicked the wrong download link on the Microsoft website. I'll download the 64-bit edition later on and try upgrading from the 32-bit edition when I have time. For now, it's not a big deal.

Sesame Chicken with Green Beans and Rice

2009-08-02T17:52:00.004-04:00

The problem with watching the Food Network all the time is that there are bound to be consequences. Like my attempt to make Rachel Ray's 30-minute Devilish Sesame Chicken with Green Beans and Scallion Rice. The recipe can be found here. The photo is my sample plating of the dish.

I wanted to make sure that the kids would eat it too, so I left out the tablespoon of hot pepper sauce (that would be where the devilish comes in) and the chopped scallions.

The end result was a 60-minute meal (after you add in the time to prep and clean up) that I though came out good. The next time I make it, I'll have to try it with a dash of hot pepper sauce and the scallions.

This Has To Be a Disease

2009-07-30T23:10:00.003-04:00

So I took a few days off from work. Not many. Just today and tomorrow. In the last month, I've worked, no kidding, 202 hours. I few days off are in order in my opinion.

Here is the rub, I can't stop thinking about what is going on in the office!! Thankfully, Notify Corp hasn't released a NotifyLink client yet for Palm webOS and the Pre yet, otherwise I'm sure I would have been checking my email all day.

At least tomorrow I'm going on a day trip to a local aquarium and that should keep me out of trouble...for a few hours at least.

So what do you think? Should I seek a 12-step program or some professional help? I wonder how prevalent this condition is in Corporate America?

Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Soundtrack

2009-07-25T21:29:00.004-04:00

On Tuesday, July 28, La La Land Records will release the season 4 Battlestar Galactica soundtrack. Composer Bear McCreary has decided to make this a 2-disc album to make sure BSG fans get a full dose of the music from the final season of the hit SyFy TV show. I've become a big fan of McCreary and I am looking forward to turning the lights down low and letting this music wash over me. McCreary has a post on his blog about all the BSG goodness that is included on this record.

The record comes out on Tuesday, but you can pre-order yours today from Amazon.com.

In related Battlestar news, during the recent San Diego Comic Con Battlestar Galactica/Caprica panel, the good folks from AintItCoolNews.com posted that the following tidbits got dropped:

The SyFy premiere date for CAPRICA will be Jan 22, 2010.
Edward James Olmos predicts more BSG movies after THE PLAN.

I realize that the 2-hour Caprica movie is/was the series pilot episode, so to speak. It is interesting, but I really liked the space aspect of Battlestar. I'd love to see more BSG TV movies because that cast worked so amazingly well together.

This is a "Kiddie" Pool?

2009-07-25T21:06:00.002-04:00

So I got roped into buying the kids one of these ghetto-fabulous inflatable pools with a filter. You know, the blow up Intex pools that they have for like $70 at Target? Ok, so we have the thing up for like 4 days and Jen leaves the filter running in one of the rain storms we had last week. Good buy filter!

All right; fair enough. Jen doesn't really know anything about owning a pool and I was passed out on the couch after having worked a ton of over time. So I figure I'll just suck it up and get a new filter and the lesson will have been learned. Right? WRONG!!

Today, I ended up having to buy a whole new pool because there where no more filters at the store, and ordering them online was just going to take too long...tick tock...summers slipping by. So I let Jen talk me into getting a whole new pool. Fine, FINE! Anything for some piece and quite. So we went back to Target and we get a new bigger pool because they where on clearance and this one has metal posts that hold the sidewall up so you don't end up with a fat, squat, egg-shaped pool like we had with inflatable one.

The good news it that regardless of how much I think this pool is so unfabulous. the girls LOVE it. So I guess it has to stay.

(By the way, the picture shown here is the much larger 24-foot version. We ended up getting the 12-foot version. The swimmers where not included with either edition.)

Apple Blocks Pre's Media Sync Feature

2009-07-15T22:44:00.001-04:00

Apple, with the release of iTunes 8.2.1 earlier today, has blocked the Media Sync feature in Palm webOS on the Pre from syncing with the popular jukebox software.

Dieter Bohn writes for PreCentral.net:

"According to Apple's surprisingly forthcoming release notes:

iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple Devices.

We were wondering if this day would come after the back and forth between Apple and Palm on the issue. It's as-yet unclear exactly what method Apple is using to block Pre sync, but we suspect is wasn't easy. ...Which means we also suspect it might not be easy for Palm to turn it back on."

As a long time Apple fan and customer (I received my first Apple computer, the Apple //e, back in 1984) I'm really put off by this move. Just last night I was purchasing more iTunes Plus music (new tracks and upgrades from previously purchased Fairplay DRM tracks) so that I can put more content on my Pre. I'll also mention that I'm not clueless to what is going on either: Apple makes little to no money from music sales. The really money made from the iTunes music store is the sale of iPhones and iPods. I get it, really I do. But I've purchased three iPods already. I really don't need a new iPod and I really don't want an iPhone, because, unlike what Mr. Jobs said at the iPhone announcement, I really do want a physical keyboard on my device. Soft keyboards are terrible in my opinion.

So now the stand off starts. How long can I hold back on the previous version of iTunes before I'm forced to upgrade to a newer release that prevents my Pre from syncing? I do purchase a lot of TV shows from the iTunes store to watch on my iPod touch, my MacBook, and my Apple TV. I may be forced to upgrade iTunes on my Mac, but I'll be disabling the Apple Software Update feature on my Windows Vista Ultimate box.

Pre users, what are you planning on doing? Are you going to hang back with me, or are you going to upgrade and use one of the third-party solutions to sync iTunes to your Pre such as doubleTwist or the Missing Sync for the Pre?

Click the comments link below and let your voices be heard!

[Via PreCentral.net...]

Adventures On the High Seas!

2009-07-13T20:15:00.009-04:00

A few days ago Meghan asked to buy some "pirate cards" like Dad gets while at the local Target. The game, Pirates of the Spanish Main, is a pretty cool model ship game that is no longer being published by WizKids Games, a Topps property. (Yes, the folks who have made baseball trading cards, like, forever!) I guess Target had a lot of inventory left over because single packs keep showing up every now and again.

So I bought Meg a starter pack, Katie got a pack of iCarly stickers, and later that afternoon, after she built her own ships, we set sail on our sea epic.

We where playing the game under the starter rules to keep things really simple: get the most goal back to your home port to win; fight if you must. So I set out four islands loaded up with gold and the islands separated us so there wouldn't be much fighting.

The long story short, Meg kicked my pirate booty, sunk one of my tall ships, and did it all with an audience; namely Katie. At least I didn't have to do the walk of the 4-siders!

"Hammer Time"

2009-07-11T22:28:00.002-04:00

The other night Jen and I had the opportunity to eat out without the kids. During our big night of debauchery, we ended up at a local Barnes & Noble. Jen was looking for something to read at work and I was trying my hardest to no look bored.

About three quarters of the way through the story, we ended up in the Mystery section and when I turned around, I saw these dark gray eyes staring at me. The paper dame captured my attention and my eyes where drawn to the large "Mickey Spillane" on the cover. I had heard of Mike Hammer, but I had never read a Spillane story. What I knew of the author and character came only from the TV show, and of that, it was only the tune from the opening credits. I picked up the book and bought it.

The words on the back of the book told me all that I needed to know that I would like my time tagging along with Hammer.

"Collected here for the firs time are three of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer novels that really deliver the goods, one shade blacker than noir-stories that begin in the gutter and go down from there. Here is a world where the only crime is getting caught, where justice can be bought for the price of a beer, and where corruption lies around every corner. This is Mike Hammer's world. Welcome to it...and watch out."

The flavor text on the back of the book played to my idea of what is would be like to have lived in the 1940's and 50's on the other side of the tracks as it where in old Manhattan. In a time where dames of the dangerous sorts could be found in a dark smoke filled bar and bad boys like Hammer operate in a murky world where it is hard to tell which way is up and who the good guys really are.

(I also liked 1942's Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine for the same reasons.)

I'm working my way through A Lonely Night and so far, Hammer has delivered the goods. If you haven't yet met Mike Hammer, you should do so soon. You can find him at Barnes & Nobel.com.

Microsoft TechNet Plus Subscription

2009-06-27T16:42:00.001-04:00

I consider myself a “Mac Guy.” That said, I’m still and IT professional, so that means I live in a Microsoft world. To help me keep on top of my game, I just subscribed to Microsoft’s TechNet Plus.

TechNet is Microsoft’s online community of IT professionals that provides two free phone support cases, discussion forums access, access to a vast technical knowledge base, and most importantly, to me anyway, hundreds of Microsoft’s commercial software products for “free.” (TechNet Plus requires an on going annual subscription.)

So for the next 12 months, I’ll be able to download and install, for non-commercial or production use, copies of just about every Microsoft product on the market. To put this in perspective: for about the cost of an upgrade from Office 2003 to Office 2007, I now have access to screw around with all of Microsoft’s products.

Pretty cool, eh?

You can learn more about this program on the Microsoft TechNet website.

Who Are You?!

2009-06-20T19:51:00.002-04:00

The weirdest thing has happened. Jen discovered FaceBook. Fine. She was chatting and posting, and generally being social online. Then disaster struck. Twice! She killed two of my laptops, ok, the kids killed two of my laptops, but it was on Jen's watch.

Now Jen has gone out and purchased her first computer - and HP Mini Note 1115NR. I'm actually using it post this blog entry right now...shssss...don't tell her.

But then it gets weirdert still. Now she wants to get an iPod nano and iTunes! Who are you Jennifer?! You don't technology! It's like I don't even know you anymore! >sniff<

Ditching my iTouch for the Pre

2009-06-18T22:56:00.002-04:00

Ok, let's not get crazy here, but since purchasing my Pre on June 6th, I've noticed that I don't use my iPod touch as much anymore.

The main thing that I used my iTouch for was browsing the web while I was round the house on my Wi-Fi network. The mobile edition of Safari is amazing! It is a great mobile web browser. The only thing that loads of people don't like is that there isn't a Flash Player client for mobile devices yet. (That beef is with Adobe, mostly.) Sure, I still listen to Market Place, music, and watch video (TV shows and movies) on my iPod, but for music on the go, my Pre has been picking up the work load. That is mostly due to the fact that the Pre presents itself to iTunes as an iPod.

It would really stink if Palm and Apple got into an "Oh no you didn't" scuffle over this feature. Apple has such a huge market segment locked up in how people legally buy music and video content that they would only be hurting themselves if customers couldn't sync their webOS device to iTunes. But I digress. (Check out the June 2009 archive over at SmartphoneFanatics.com for more on the Apple/Palm iTunes war of words.)

We'll see if the Pre really makes me forget all about my trusty iPod touch!

Microsoft Course 2279

2009-06-02T23:14:00.001-04:00

I'm off learning about maintaining a Microsoft Windows 2003 Active Directory infrastructure this week. Microsoft refers to this particular class as 2279B. The full name of this class is "Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure."

Things have been going well for me in this 5-day off-site class. Until I asked about taking the Microsoft Certified Professional exam at the end of the week. During the class I have been taking the practice quizzes and I have been scoring well on them. Sure that are some tight spots for the features that my organization doesn't use (two-way forest trusts, for example), but I've been getting through it. Or so I tough. I asked the trainer about the Microsoft official test stating that I had been doing well on the quizzes and he told me that those tests where "lame" and that the Microsoft exams where considerably harder. My stomach sank in an instant. Maybe I've been a manager too long for this kind of work.

I'm not sure that I'll be ready on Friday afternoon to tackle the Microsoft exam, but I am taking some steps to make sure that I am prepared for my shot at becoming a Windows 2003 Server MCP.

I've gotten a link to a MeasureUp online practice exam from my instructor. I also learned that I don't have to take the test this week. I can schedule it the following week, two weeks from now, or later than that. I have also reached out to folks that I know who have passed this test and have gone on to become Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs) to borrow their courseware and study guides. Lastly, I think I'm going to see about purchasing another Microsoft practice test package from the likes of Transender, MeasureUp, or SelfTest Software.

This is going to be a nail biter folks!

Socks Cheats Death Again!

2009-05-18T12:40:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure how he manages to do it, but Socks has managed to escape death once again with the drama that can only be found in a summer action movie.

Yesterday, Socks was hit by a car (this is the second time he decided to play "Chicken" with a car) while he was crossing the street. While in bad shape yesterday, the doctors at a local animal hospital managed to stabilize him and patch up his cuts. He was kept over night for observation.

Today, I've moved him to his local vet for continued observation and to have a fractured jaw repaired later in the week. If all goes according to play, Socks should be back home by Friday.

2009-05-17T14:54:00.001-04:00

Crap! Socks got hit by a car and the girls had a front row seat. I'm waiting to hear how bad he is.

Are You Kidding Me?! Another One?!

2009-05-10T22:17:00.004-04:00

I found out yesterday that Jen and Katie have killed another one of my notebooks. For those of you who are keeping score at home, that is the second computer in 6 months. You'll recall that over this past winter my Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium when flying when Kate was running through the house my my PowerBook and tripped and fell. She was fine, Mac, not so much so.

Shortly after that tragic event, I pulled out an old Toshiba Satellite that I had hanging around. I found out on Saturday night that Jen and Kate spilled soda into the keyboard.

So it looks like I'm back on the hunt for a notebook. I never did get that 17-inch MacBook Pro that I was looking at earlier this spring. At this point, I think I'll buy a crappy Windows POS PC that you see in the Staples and BestBuy Sunday fliers that usually run under $500. That way, when the Dynamic Duo kill another notebook, I won't cry so much. I'll have to keep an eye out for a cheap Dell or HP notebooks. I'll thinking of something in the 12 to 15-inch category so those super cheap netbooks are out. (The screens are too small for them anyway.) I guess I'll have to wait a little bit longer for my MacBook Pro.

2009-05-09T09:01:00.001-04:00

I still really hate it when adults continue to act like children.

2009-05-09T08:22:00.001-04:00

Jen admitted Meghan's Communion was just like a mini wedding. That is a pointfor me.

2009-05-06T17:13:00.001-04:00

Holy crap! I can wear my sunglasses. w00t! The rain has stopped!

Here Comes Windows 7 RC1

2009-05-05T18:16:00.001-04:00

I’m downloading the Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC)1, the latest beta build of Microsoft’s attempt to rid the world of Windows Vista. I’ll be installing Windows 7 RC1 on my MacBook under Parallels Desktop 4.0. Windows is a nice place to visit, but I’d personally rather not live there.

2009-04-27T19:40:00.001-04:00

I miss my Palm Treo 755p. Someone's Treo just rang at Meg's softball game and I went for my holster. Come on Pre!

The Grassias Storm Manhattan!

2009-04-21T22:30:00.010-04:00

Last week the troops and I stormed Manhattan for the day to go check out the American Museum of Natural History, the very same museum that was featured in the movie "Night at the Museum." Here are just a few pictures from our trip.

Grand Central Terminal, New York City

Meghan and Katie's first taxi ride

We made it to the museum!

Model of NASA's Mars rover

The mighty T-Rex. Interestingly, this is one of few exhibits that has real T-Rex bones on display. These aren't plaster casts.

Maybe dinosaurs really did evolve into birds as this display suggests

Meghan loves this character in the movie

The end of a long day in the city

AoA Now With Microblogging

2009-04-20T20:58:00.002-04:00

Who needs Twitter? Alan on Anything is now microblog enabled from my BlackBerry!

Almost and Envoy

2009-04-20T18:28:00.008-04:00

It should come as no surprise to you that I'm a "gamer." I like playing card games, board games, video games, and yes, even those weird collectible trading card games like Magic: The Gathering (does anyone still call that game by it's full name anymore?) and WizKids Games Pirates of the Spanish Main.

"Pirates" as my friends and I call the game, is a fun game with little 3D plastic models that you "sail" around the world, or a kitchen table, in search of gold, sea monsters, adventures, and, with a little luck, epic naval battles which will be passed down from generation to generation as part of our oral tradition; or not. In any case, the game is fun and spending time smack talking around a table with good friends is even better.

But I'm a geek. I keep my fleet "dry docked" in large cardboard boxes for baseball cards. I have a database of the cards in my collection and how many copies I have of that card. (It makes trading cards easier, really.) But the really cool thing about WizKids Games, an imprint of Topps (yes, the baseball card people), is that they take their customers seriously. WizKids was cool because they wanted to work directly with their customers to listen to their feedback and ideas about the game and to help bring new players to the WizKids games family.

To try and drive this community involvement, WizKids created the Envoy program. Envoys are, among others, player customers who work with WizKids to play test new games, give feedback, and run and referee games at tournements and local comic book and game shops. Administion to the Envoy program was conditional in that you had to pass, get this, not one, but two tests!

So what?

Well, here comes the bad news. At the end of last year, Topps layed off all of the WizKids Games staff, effectively shuting down the business. It seams that the company has gone "zombie". The website is still up, but most of the games are no longer being printed. The other day I found a few unopened packs of Pirates cards next to my printed rules sheets for all of the expansion card sets. The zombie website, while months out of date, was still up and I was able to login to the player support area. So, having some time last night that would have better been spent sleeping, I took both of the Envoy tests that are required to become a Pirates of the Spanish Main Privateer. That is a fancy in-game way of saying "referee." Now for the really bad news. Since the company is not operating, there really aren't any more games being run that need referees. Without venues running games, I can't obtain the final piece I need to become an official: the referral code from another Pirates Privateer. To make the jump from a player to privateer, you have to be referred by someone already in the program.

To become a full envoy, for a game that isn't being printed anymore, I'll have to track down a WizKids Pirates Privateer envoy or a comic shop owner who still knows their WizKids approved venue code.

So, tell me, how geeky is that? I'm almost an envoy.

Only One DC?!

2009-04-13T20:46:00.001-04:00

Hey, I just realized that I've only had one bottle (the 20 oz. , not the 2-liter) of Diet Coke today!! I'd better get to it!

The Holidays Suck

2009-04-12T19:24:00.004-04:00

The holidays suck. I love my family. I love the holidays. I just hate them together. Why can't people just get along for the sake of the kids? You would think that adults would act like adults and not like kids.

Of Terminators and D&D

2009-04-11T23:40:00.004-04:00

Is is required that ever modern day sci-fi TV show have the obligatory Dungeons & Dragons scene? The above is a screen grab from the season 2 final episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles where a captured Terminator is learning to play D&D. The computer geek in the right of the frame is the computer nerd in charge of the computer array in the background. Being a computer geek who has played my share of role playing games, who am I to judge? Just accept it. Computer geeks read comic books and play D&D. 'Nuff said.

Things Don’t Look So Good For FOX’s Terminator

2009-04-11T13:27:00.003-04:00

Ok, I’m beginning to think I have the kiss of death for sci-fi shows on TV. I started watching Battlestar Galactica on TV for season four and then the show ends it’s run with that very same season.

Not to worry, I still have Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX. Ops! Looks like that show, along with Dollhouse, which I’ve been watching on Hulu.com, are are about to get written off for good.

James Hibberd writes on The Live Feed:

“The season finale of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was unchanged from recent weeks, pulling a 1.3 preliminary rating among adults 18-49 and 3.6 million viewers.

Despite wrapping up the show's second season (and, likely, the series), and offering fans a heavily promoted preview of the upcoming Terminator: Salvation, the action-drama wound up flat.

Meanwhile Dollhouse slipped a tenth. Dollhouse received a 1.4 rating among and 3.6 million viewers. This matches the show's March 27 season low in the adult demo, though it's not any kind of dramatic change (the show has been trading in the 1.4-1.6 range for the past few weeks).”

Maybe if this summer’s Terminator: Salvation goes well, we’ll see FOX renew T:SCC for a third season. If not, I’ll be looking forward to getting T:SCC on DVD.

FOX will be unveiling their 2009-2010 TV line up on May 18th. Stay tuned.

Oh man, this sucks!

2009-04-11T10:25:00.001-04:00

I’ve spent the last 3 days with a pounding sinus headache. This seriously sucks. I’ve forced myself to get out bed today. Now that that has happened and the girls and I have played several rounds of Candyland, I need to find something to do. I need to get out of the house.

Adding to the mayhem here at Casa de Grassia is the fact that Meghan has strep and Jen has the flu.

Maybe I’ll go buy a new gadget to help me get over all the sick people in the house.

I Lied About Social Networking

2009-04-11T01:25:00.005-04:00

I've been pretty adamant about not joining any social networks like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The number one reason for not doing so is the creepiness of it all. Back in the early days of MySpace I forgot how many "social preditor" articles I read in the news, and so I decided back then I wouldn't join an online social network without a very compelling reason. Besides, I have a two blogs and a podcast. If people really want to know what I'm up to, my status is just a Google search away.

Today, I learned that I lied...sort of. It turns out that Google owns and operates the Orkut social network. Since I do have a Google account, I also have an Orkut account. Since I've never used the Orkut service, I'm still sticking to my guns about not joining, or in this case, not partcipating in a social network without a compelling reason.

Oh, and yes, Google has labeled Orkut as being in "beta". My God, that company abuses the word "beta."

Palm OS 5 Emulation Coming to webOS

2009-04-02T00:07:00.000-04:00

PreCentral.net is reporting that Palm indeed does have an ace up their sleeves for their new webOS mobile operating system that will debut on the Pre smart(er)phone.

"I just finished getting a great Palm Pre app walkthrough from Palm (video coming soon!), but this couldn't wait for the upload to finish. There was one app that Palm didn't want to talk about (but we suspect will be revealed tonight) the "Classic" icon you see above with a logo of a Palm device and a decidedly "Mac OS 9 Classic" feel to it.
Don't blink: Palm looks as though they are going to support PalmOS apps on the Pre and webOS via some sort of emulation app!"

PreCentral also reports that the emulation layer is being provided by MotionApps. The Classic icon is the third icon in the third column.

Read the full PreCentral.net article...

Given the fact that today is April 1, you might write this off as an April Fool's Day joke. The folks at PreCentral are on record as saying this is no joke. I'm really looking forward to this development and taking the new emulation environment out for a spin.

[Thanks to my anonymous tipster for the heads up.]

Facebook So Not the Drama

2009-03-28T16:19:00.001-04:00

Jen was excited because she has 70 friends on Facebook. Yawn. So not the drama.

Oh, Rats!

2009-03-24T08:10:00.002-04:00

In the drama that is trying to get two little girls up, dressed, fed, and off to school on time I managed to forget my BlackBerry at home today.

Looks like my Dell Mini 9 (aka Inspiron 910) is going to have to take center stage today to help keep me on top of email and meetings.

It is going to be a long day today.

Doing the Windows Vista Thing

2009-03-22T19:42:00.004-04:00

My Dell Optiplex 755 was looking really lonely today so I'm "going maverick" tonight and I'm using Windows Vista. Maybe I'll crank up my virtualized Windows 7 beta, just to spice things up a bit.

Holy Frak! One More Go Around for BSG!

2009-03-22T11:54:00.004-04:00

In my last post I was complaining about what was left unsaid in the final two episodes of Battlestar Galactica; Day Break Part 1 and 2. I also demanded that there be more to the final chapter in this gripping space drama.

To my surprise, I was shocked to see that there is in fact one more chapter to Battlestar Galactica! In iTunes this morning I was delighted to see that the second highest rated TV show was Daybreak Part 3! Whoo-hoo! Looks like I have one more go around with BSG tonight on my Apple TV. And just to get the full effect to the climatic conclusion, I'll have to watch the first two parts over again.

Farewell Galatcica - Part 2

2009-03-22T00:36:00.003-04:00

I just finished watching Daybreak Part 2, the final episode of Battlestar Galactica and all I have to say is, "What the frak?! That's it?!"

There had better be more to the story when Season 4.5 is released on DVD.

I Just Bought a 2009 Acura

2009-03-21T15:19:00.006-04:00

Holy Crap! I just bought a 2009 Acura TSX! I usually lease my cars. Computers and electronics are my thing, tinkering with cars is not. So I lease a new car ever few years so I don't have to deal with anything more than tune ups, oil changes, and putting gas in. With my 2006 Honda Accord EX lease up next month I needed to start shopping for a new car. Just for the heck of it, my Dad and I stopped at a local Acura dealer and I totally geeked out on the TSX. For as much as I liked my 2006 EX, this car has some nice features to it. First is the drive. The car is smooth. Secondly, included as base features is Bluetooth integration for my BlackBerry and full support for my Apple iPod. Yes, I will be able to control my iPod from the stearing wheel! Sweet!

I am really going to love driving this car!

Dell Mini 9, Mac OS X Leopard Powered!

2009-03-18T12:12:00.002-04:00

I can't believe this works!! I was playing with Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 on my Dell Mini 9 this morning. Everything was working as you would expect. There where some minor issues with putting the unit to sleep and waking it up, but I really did not spend the time applying those fixes. The directions that I followed to pull this little hat trick off can be found on the MyDellMini.com website.

The downside to all of this is that the Mini 9 that I have is a corporate asset, so I can't keep Mac OS X loaded on the device. This afternoon I will be reinstalling Windows XP on the Mini, but not before I take a hard drive disk image which I can use to reload Mac OS X any time I want to.

The entire process took me about four hours. That includes time to backup my Windows partition which I knew I was going to have to reinstall. The time to format the hard drive and installing Mac OS X. I also had to download and install the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Update and apply the unofficial Dell Mini 9 drivers. The the back side, I'm figuring it will take about another 30-60 minutes to reformat the hard drive and restore the Windows partition.

Installing Mac OS X on My Dell Mini 9

2009-03-17T23:26:00.006-04:00

I can't believe that I'm watching the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installer running on my Dell Mini 9 netbook! This is so frakin' insane! If I end up going all night without sleep, this is all Mark and Geri's fault.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T18:09:00.003-04:00

"Happy St. Patrick's Day!!" xoxo -Vixen

Weird thing, Jen want's to go get some green beer. Ok. I guess.

Woohoo! MacBook Pro 17-Inch Update

2009-03-17T18:03:00.002-04:00

The online Apple Store is showing that the MacBook Pro 17-inch notebook is now only back ordered by 5-7 business days. Hey, maybe I'll be able to buy one next month.

Stay tuned. This isn't over.

Scott Summers is in the Wolverine Movie

2009-03-15T11:29:00.003-04:00

I was just watching the latest trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine and was surprised to see that one of my favorite X-Men will be in the movie...Scott Summers. As anyone who follows the Mighty Marvel Universe will know that Scott Summers becomes the leader of the X-Men, Cyclops. Together with Gambit, we should end up with a lot of exploding things.

You can check out the latest Wolverine trailer at Apple.com/trailers.

Mac OS X Leopard on a Dell Mini 9

2009-03-14T18:22:00.005-04:00

Holy Crap!! I had no idea this kind of modding was going on with the Dell Inspiron 910, aka the Mini 9! Looks like several teams of hackers have figured out how to boot the Intel processor edition of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on the Mini 9, which I have sitting on my desk right now.

Dan, of UneasySilence.com writes:

"I’m a huge fan of ultra portables! They are small, light and just powerful enough to do what you need to get done. Sure I run Windows (in VMware), but for me the Mac OS better fits my lifestyle, but if you are looking for an ultra portable you are going to have to look beyond Cupertino.

So, when I got the Dell mini 9 all I wanted to do was put Leopard on it. With a little bit of tinkering and some help from a good blogging buddy Kevin Tofel I was able to painlessly install 10.5.4 on the little guy."

For directions on how to bake Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard into your Dell Mini 9, check out UneasySilence.com now.

[Thanks to Mark and Geri for the tip.]

MacBook Pro Update - Still No Gots

2009-03-14T16:28:00.004-04:00

My quest continues for a new MacBook Pro 17-inch. This afternoon I called all of the Connecticut Apple Store locations, including the two Best Buy locations that carry Apple computers. No one has the 17-inch MacBook Pro in stock.

Are these things really shipping? If so, in what quantities are they being produced? I'm thinking that we may be bordering on false advertising here. I'm only half kidding about that.

UPDATE:

I just took a look at the availability of the new MacBook Pro 17-inch notebooks over at CDW. My sales rep confirms what I'm seeing at the retail locations: No one has these things in stock.

Come on Apple, are these things really shipping?

Going the Other Way is Even Worse!

2009-03-08T21:40:00.003-04:00

Ok, so now that I can connect to my MacBook from my Vista box, I wanted to flip it around and connect to my Vista PC from my Mac. I'm the only user on both machines and I'm an IT professional. Obviously, that means I want full, unfettered access to the other machine regardless of where I'm coming in from.

Getting the Mac to cooporate was easy enough. Apple did enhance security in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out. Getting Vista to share the root of my C:\ drive was a bit more, um, challenging.

Vandy013 on Tech Support Guy Forums had the anser to this riddle:

"To access the administrative shares of a Vista computer from another computer, you will need to change a registry setting. You will need to change HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\syste m\LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy to 1 (DWORD)."

Oh! My! Figgin'! God!

Editing the registry on any Windows box should be done with care. This is one of those measure twice, cut once things. Seriously. I'm a professional and I hate editing the registry. I guess that if I dig deep enough, I can find a local Windows policy that I can much with, but at this time of night, I'm not in the mood to mount a full scale "bug hunt".

So, the rule of thumb with the registry is to always make a back up before you start. One false move and your PC is toast and it's back to the Windows install media for you.

Check out Vandy013's full post here.

File Sharing With Mac OS X and Windows Vista

2009-03-08T21:33:00.002-04:00

Why does this have to be so friggin' difficult? Mac OS X and Windows XP got a long swimmingly. Then Vista has to come a long and mess it all up. I spent hours trying to figure out why I couldn't get my MacBook and Dell Optiplex 755 with Vista Business to talk.

Blogger Chris Pirillo had the answer:

"When you’re prompted for a username and password from the Windows Vista authentication dialog, use: MacIPAddress\YourMacUsername (with the password for your user account on OS X). For example, 192.168.1.27\chris might be used - if your Mac’s internal network IP address was 192.168.1.27 and the user “chris” was configured for Windows sharing. The TCP/IP tab in OS X’s System Preferences Network appletfor your designated network adapter should show you the proper IP address to use."

Read Chris full post on the subject here...

The New Star Trek Movie

2009-03-08T18:03:00.004-04:00

"Your father was captain of a star ship for 12 minutes." "I dare you to do better."

I just watched the latest trailer for J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot. Any lingering fears that this new movie will suck as bad as the last one are now gone.

Check out the latest trailer in all it's HD Quicktime goodness.

Farewell Galatcica

2009-03-08T10:33:00.003-04:00

There are just two frakin' episodes remaining to Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica! While I'm not sure whether the last two episodes will be aired back to back this coming Friday night or not (hey, I buy the episdoes on Saturday mornings thanks to iTunes), I do know that the show, and maybe the Old Girl herself, are going to go out with a bang that will likely leave me scraming "FRAK!" at my computer when it is all said and done.

Check out the trailer for Daybreak Part 1 below. (May be slow to load)

MacBook Pro 17-inch...NOT!

2009-03-07T17:38:00.004-05:00

I just returned home from my latest trip to the Apple Store in the Westfarms mall. The purpose of the tip, aside from a detour to the Rain Forest Cafe, was to purchase the totally new, totally sexy, super slim, all powerful, Apple MacBook Pro 17".

I had (virtual) fists full of cash. I had the green light from my CFO (read: wife). And I had a full tank of gas in the car. Too bad the Apple Store didn't have any in stock.

Ugh!

Window Live Writer is Blogger Enabled

2009-02-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

I was playing with Microsoft’s Windows Live service along side my Windows Vista Business workstation. While messing around with the new software, I discovered that I could link Live Writer to Alan on Anything. I’m glad to see that Microsoft is allowing Windows Vista and Live customers to integrate with other vendor’s software and services.

Score one point for Microsoft.

Frak! I've BSG'ed Again

2009-02-22T18:50:00.005-05:00

I couldn't help myself. I've found myself ordering the third season soundtrack to Battlestar Galactica. You'll recall I blogged a few weeks ago about listening to the first two seasons on my iPod and that I needed to have the third season's CD.

To add insult to my musical addiction, neither the Apple iTunes store nor the Amazon .mp3 store had the album available for purchase. I was left with little choice: I had to order the physical CD (gasp!) from Amazon. I did check local retailer Best Buy, FYE, Target, and Wal-Mart before shopping online in a vain attempt to help out the local economy. Too bad no one carries the CD locally.

Get your Galactica on here...