Read more »]]>

I’ve been trying to read more again lately – I used to do that constantly. Having the Kindle app on my phone since last year helped a little, and getting an actual Kindle for Christmas was even better :) Plus actual books that I’ve been reading.

Eric Flint was suggested to me as an author to read a long time ago, and I finally got around to starting one of his books this week. 1632, the first in a series/universe of books. I’m only 14% into it, but it’s pretty good so far. A few books in the series are available for free via the Baen Free Library, and other ebooks are reasonbly priced ($4-6), available in multiple formats, and DRM-free. Worth checking out if alternate history science fiction sounds good to you.

Read more »]]>

Well, after doing some more research and playing around with things in VirtualBox, I think I’ll be using Debian+XFS after all. ZFS seems like it would be great if I didn’t have plans to extend my RAID array. Now I guess I have to play around more with md+lvm+xfs things to see just how it works. And find out how it handles spreading things out over multiple RAID5 arrays – seems like lvm can do that from the little I read, I just don’t know if it’s a good idea or not.

And make sure that Sick Beard and SABnzbd work fine on there as well. Other than that, I don’t really need anything else running on there that I can think of.

Read more »]]>

I finally was able to check out a Kindle in person, since The Source started to sell them. I must say, I was pretty impressed. Page transitions were much faster than the Kobo I tried at Coles, and overall the device just felt better in my hands. I wanted one anyway, but after playing with an actual device a little bit, I’m sure of it now. Not right now, but it’s definitely on my list of toys to get.

Read more »]]>

I’ve been poking around a bit lately at ripping some of the TV shows I have on DVD to MKV format, so I can store them on my ReadyNAS NV+ and play them via XBMC on whatever computer on my network. After some issues, I think I have it figured out. It doesn’t help that the show I was trying first is Supernatural, and there are more titles on the disc than there are shows, because some have recaps and some don’t. And they aren’t in any sensible order, so you have to watch the video to see which episode it is.

Season 1 Disc 1
title00: S01E01 46:22
title01: S01E04 42:08
title02: S01E04 41:13 (no recap)
title04: S01E02 43:10
title05: S01E03 43:27
title07: S01E02 41:33 (no recap)
title08: S01E03 42:32 (no recap)

See how annoying that is? Hopefully some of my other shows aren’t so bad. It doesn’t help that I haven’t seen past episode 9 of season 1 yet, so I can’t easily tell what episode sometime is.

Anyway, I’ve decided on using MakeMKV to grab things from the disc, and then run it through Handbrake to convert into the format I want. For some reason ripping directly with Handbrake causes it to have all sorts of audio and video glitches (on my Windows system, it does work fine – although slower – on my Mac). But since I don’t want to encode all of it anyway, the extra step works fine.

At some point I plan to pick up a Zotac Zbox HD-ID40-U to use as a HTPC. It’s currently on sale at NCIX but I’m going to wait until at least the summer to see what spare cash I’ll have for something like this. I’ve seen some reviews and video of how well it works, and I’m impressed. Perfect for what I want it for. I already have a hard drive and 4GB of memory lying around from my laptop, so it won’t cost me as much. And I’d likely stick Ubuntu on there so I don’t have to pick up another copy of Windows 7 (I miss playing around with Linux anyway).

Read more »]]>

The Acer Revo AR1600-U914HE is currently on sale on NCIX, and I think I might get one. I’ve been reading some reviews and they seem to be pretty good, and basically what I’m looking for to use as a HTPC. I’ve also been playing with the newest beta of XBMC and that’s working quite well with my fileserver full of movies and tv shows. Sure, it’s not the newest and fastest version, but it’ll be fine. Having HDMI is a definite plus.

Other options I had in mind were Boxee or the Logitech Revue (GoogleTV device). The Boxee is a similar price, though more limited considering how well XBMC works. Plus it’s a weird shape and couldn’t do everything a normal computer can. The Logitech Revue… well, that’s just too damn expensive.

Now, if only Netflix had proper integration with XBMC… I’ve seen some hacks for it though, I’ll have to check into that.

Read more »]]>

I have two new Dell ST2310 monitors on the way (23″, 1920×1080), got them on sale for $159 each. And I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to set things up. My main gaming system has a Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP right now (24″, 1920×1200) but I’d consider a dual monitor setup on some system again. My Mac Mini just has a BenQ FP222WH (22″, 1680×1050) attached. All of them have HDMI input, which is useful. I think I’ll be using one of the new ones to attach to my Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 though. And do something else with my 19″ LCD TV, which I don’t actually watch TV on these days.

Also, I’m attempting to use Google Chrome again to see if it is something I can use yet or if it’ll annoy me like it always has in the past. So far so good, though.

Read more »]]>

I think in the somewhat near future, I’m going to upgrade a couple of parts in my gaming computer. The power supply and video card. Possibly the RAM, though that’s not quite as needed. It’ll probably be these parts, or something like them:

• EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Fermi 607MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E Video Card
• Antec Truepower New 750W Modular Power Supply ATX12V V2.3 Active PFC 80 Plus SLI Ready 120MM PWM Fan

Beats the GTX 260 I have and whatever power supply was in my Antec case (NSK 4480B II). Depends on how much they are and what better options are available when I have enough saved up. And maybe after a couple of years I’ll get a new monitor, maybe 27-30″ instead of this 24″ monitor.

Also, if I get a new power supply, I need to remember to make sure it’ll fit in the case.

Read more »]]>

Over the years I’ve slowly been putting together a set of good quality stainless steel pots and pans from Paderno as they go on sale. At the moment I have:

• 0.8L saucepan
• 2L saucepan
• 3L saucepan
• 1L saute pan
• 2L saute pan
• 4L casserole
• 20cm frying pan
• 30cm nonstick frying pan

What are some other useful sizes/types I should get?

Read more »]]>

Just an update on my phone – I’m currently using FroydVillain 1.4.3 instead of CyanogenMod. Both are based on Android OS 2.2, but FroydVillain just has more working things. Like the camera. And it does seem somewhat faster when switching screens etc. A more optimized kernel, I guess.