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January 29, 2006
Sailing in Belieze
These are long past due. In July, to cap off our trip in Guatemala, we went sailing in belieze for a week with our friends. The best part was that since Abel has a great sailing resume, we were able to rent a boat that sleeps eight and not charter a captain - so it was just us. I'll post more pictures periodically over the coming months.
Posted by Jeff at 03:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 28, 2006
Most Recent Book: The Search
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture
Just finished this book. Great read! Search is more than you think, and the reason you love Google is because it is a very special kind of company.
Posted by Jeff at 05:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
Big Monitor, Little Hacked Router
First urge was to apologize - I've never been so blog lazy that I am missing a month on my index - but then I realized, "Who are you kidding, you self-important crack? Was it the hundreds of people emailing you, complaining about the wake left by your erudite mind's absence from the web, that finally convinced you to post for everyone? To satiate that hunger?"
Anyway, I've come to share some geekl0ve. Pause - remember way back in the day? (PS - did you know that whenever you talk about "back in the day", it was actually a Wednesday? Yea. That's just a fun fact. Chew on it. It's Delicious.*) Back in the day, Rebecca used to post on "our" blog. Those days are over, and the blog needs a new title. Problem is, there's no theme besides me being jacked about being a bigger nerd than my friends. Let's begin.
For our wedding, my parents' gift was something that I had been soiling myself about quite regularly - a 37" flat panel computer monitor, the Westinghouse LVM-37w1. 1920x1080, works nights as a TV. Lots of inputs, and THE PRICE! I mean, I didn't buy it for myself, but if you're into this stuff, you know that this is absolutely the best size*features/price for any LCD available - around $1600. Sometimes I just get really close and count the pixels until I reach 2 million. Does the highest HDTV spec: 1080p. It is NOT the best for pure TV-philes, but it is a flawless computer monitor. Sorry for being so braggy, but I get so excited I want to kick myself in the face.
My other tip to share is my experience with hacked open-source firmware for the common Linksys WRT54G router. It's Geekilicious - it runs linux and can be reprogrammed to do things that usually require networking equipment many times the price.
- Want to run a captive portal? (When people associate with the wireless, it redirects client web browser to a page you specify)
- Want to play with some sophisticated wireless security scams?
- Wish you had bought a wireless bridge instead for much more $$$?
While this all sounds fascinating, I needed to do the last one. We recently received a HP OfficeJet 7310 all-in-one Printer/Copier/Fax/Scanner with automatic document feeder (!). It has a built in ethernet port, similar to a HP JetDirect embedded print server. How would you get this device on your wireless network? Well you could use a USB wireless print server, but that would force you to use the HP's USB interface. What you need is something called a wireless bridge - there are several flavors, but think of it as a way to connect two wired networks, in this case, my all-in-one plugged into the back of the WRT54G and my cable modem/D-Link router/wireless access point. Works great.
Since Linksys released the original firmware under the GPL, there have been many feature-rich firmware replacements out there. I'm using DD-WRT, and if you don't mind the politics, you could also consider the non-free ones from Sveasoft. Lesson learned: If you want to do these hacks, you cannot use the newest common model, the WRT54G v5 (runs VmWare. Get the WRT54GL if buying new).
*Dane Cook material. Stolen. I saw him live - great stuff.
Posted by Jeff at 11:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 09, 2006
Vyduna Wedding Picture: Our Current Favorite
This picture makes me wonder how long I can push off sinking money into a DSLR camera. Right now, DJing a friend's wedding for cheap makes a pretty good gift - but you don't get to enjoy the event as much. What better a gift than acting as an amateur backup photog the whole time? Capture that one precious moment the others miss, print and frame - and you have a really unique wedding present.
At our wedding, we pulled a practical joke that I don't think anyone has on film. When the band fired up "The Stripper Theme", I whipped my jacket off with a flick of the wrist and warmed my palms for the time honored tradition of going up my new bride's dress to retrieve the garter. That way, the guy who catches it can sauce it up a poor girl's leg, just because she caught some flowers thrown at her. Instead, to poke fun at the tradition, I pulled out a TiVo from under Rebecca's dress (thanks to a trick David Copperfield showed me involving a long tablecloth and a boozed audience) and threw it over my head into the pack of eager elegibles. The professional photog and the videographer were off the clock, but I wish I had a snap of the chicane.
Posted by Jeff at 08:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack