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Sunday, October 9th

Dungeon & Dragons 2 - Movie


I did miss the first half hour of the movie that showed on SciFi last night, but I did see the remaining 2 hours. And I was impressed. Maybe it was because the D&D movie in theaters sucked so horribly bad that anything would be better, but I enjoyed it.

I loved the rogue in really all he did. The cleric, (to me) died stupid, but otherwise was good. Hilarious intro for the cleric. Soldiers entered the church in what looked like the middle of prayer. He tells them that shoes are not permitted in that sacred place. They looked dumb so he smacked his magic hammer on the ground toppling them.

Very straightforward story. No real twists. But overall, a fun show. Would love to catch the whole thing.
[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Scott on 10.09.05 @ 07:14 PM PST [link] [No Comments]


Mythbox - Gargoyle


So I got all the parts (except for the IR Recievce) by Friday to build my DVR. Spent a few hours getting the hardware together and (thankfully) it booted up without issue. Then I got I nice little lesson in how little I really know about setting up a Linux box.

By mid Saturday morning I realized I had been using the wrong installation instructions. Wasted a good 6+ hours essentially screwing it up. On the plus side, reformatting and getting to the same place with the right instructions and files only took about an hour. By the time I left for fun and games with my son for lunch, I was able to boot the box (calling it Gargoyle) by itself. Network card wasn't working, but it booted on its own.

Took another couple of hours to get the net card working. Took that long to dig for the information/tools I was missing.

Installing the GUI files took a lot longer than expected, and watched a movie while it emerged everything. When I went to bed at 1am, it still had about 10 components to install.

Got up this morning and when I had time to work on it again, found the problem I've always had with manual installs of Linux: I have the worst time getting the GUI configured to actually work. Emeged a few other applications needed, but am at a stopping point now until I get into the GUI. Been a long weekend, so now going to take it easy getting this working. Figure by the time I get it done, the Ir receiver will arrive.
[Karma: 5 (+/-)] Scott on 10.09.05 @ 07:05 PM PST [link] [No Comments]


Thursday, October 6th

Skipping days


My own fault, but was messing with some network settings so instead of being able to post on Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent the time I wanted to use writing, borrowing a neighbor's wifi and my work laptop to get some internet notes while I reversed the stupidity I did on my home desktop.

Jeez. Already the 6th and I'm making excuses for not writing. That's not good.

[Karma: -1 (+/-)] Scott on 10.06.05 @ 10:25 AM PST [link] [No Comments]


Dodge a bullet


Okay, I know its cynical, but I always rejoice when Wednesday is over. Usually means I'll survive work for another week. I don't know where I heard it first, but the psychology of Human Resources departments have said that the "optimal" day to lay someone off is a Wednesday. Fridays are no good because that would ruin your weekend. Mondays are no good because they are usually too stressful anyway, and that would be bad.

Tuesday and Thursday are possibles, but Tuesday is getting off the Monday stress, and Thursday is starting to think about the weekend. Leaving Wednesday as the prime firing day. So, it being Thursday, should be safe for another week.
[Karma: -3 (+/-)] Scott on 10.06.05 @ 10:18 AM PST [link] [No Comments]


Monday, October 3rd

My MythBox


Okay, got two things this week that are really making me bounce. I'm taking an online photography class with BetterPhoto but that doesn't start until Wednesday. and I really am not sure what to expect, so got that anxious feeling.

But the big ticket item this week is my MythBox. I've grumbled for years about my VCR since it always loses time, and sometimes the shows now start a minute early and last a minute or five past the hour. Makes for programming a pain in the keister. And within the last year, I can't tape live TV, as the way it is hooked up I just get a blue "no signal" screen when I try.

I've thought about Tivo, but never really "got" it. I mean, never figured out if or how it would work with my digital cable box. So the idea of pausing live TV just didn't make sense without a second digital cable box. But now that I have my VCR working on the "other" cable, so figure I could do a major upgrade and have something to experiment with. But Tivo annoyed me. Didn't like the idea of having to subscribe to something that I could do myself with a little more forethought and work (with the VCR). And requiring a phone line for the downloads?!? Come on!

Then reading multiple articles: Matthew Gast's, the The $500 Dollar Mythbox Project, and the 10 Days as a Linux User artcles I realized that the Linux commnity had essentially solved the issue for me with MythTV. Here was a free software option that had a large following with so many more options. Honestly, I hadn't paid attention to the Windows Media Center, but I didn't want to be spending a fortune for piece of software that was essentially a front end. I'd still need to bu or gimick up the "real" software to do everything. And all that I could do for free, so why not the whole thing. That way I could spend more on hardware! wink Plus with the latest issues on recording HDTV and Tivo's DRM flags where you can only watch a TV show for a month before they force it to wipe (Nope, not sure which article, google it yourself!) I wanted the control I could get in an open source software.

Now I find I can rip my kid's DVDs to the hard drive so he can just pick one to watch without scratching the discs? I can set it to play games? Screensaver my pictures, play my MP3s? Websruf to get MY news and the traffic and weather? Okay, yeah. I'm bouncing at the possibilities. Got four packages of parts that should be here by the end of the week. And yes, I am checking the silly Fedex and UPS sites to see where the packages are this second. I'm very excited: I have a new geek toy to build!

[Karma: 4 (+/-)] Scott on 10.03.05 @ 06:28 PM PST [link] [1 Comment]


Oops, I forgot to start


Well, that was annoying screwup. I told myself I'd make sure to write an entry every day so I could get back into writing. I told myself I'd start October with a bang, and well, since this is the 3rd and there's no entries for the 1st or 2nd. I'm coming in with more of a fizzle.

This relearning a good habit helps when you remember to actually do it.

So, I think I'm a decent writer, with moments of greatness, but some horrible followthrough. So, one of the big things I've read from virtually every writing suggestion site and book is to write every day.

Now granted, all those suggestions really mean to write creatively, and not just blather on like this message, but you know, got to start somewhere.

So real quick. What I plan to do with this site now:

If anyone remembers the year+ of Couchie newsletters, I want to continue on with that idea with blog entries, but I don't want to force myself into it because at the end there, I was very smarmy and artificial in a lot of the reviews. There's so many cool sites and programs out there, but I may not find one in each category every week!

I want to just write so I do get in the habit. I would so like to have a finished novel to shop around.

Pictures! Yeah, the photobug bit me hard last year. Right now I basically suck, but with a little training to get the technical in balance with the vision, I think I'd be okay.

Oh and of course Danger Boy! Who is now 4.5 years old and really kind of reversed on the whole danger thing. Maybe him freaking us out finally freaked him out so he's turned afraid of lots of little things. Kind of concerned, but overall, he's still great.

Well, a little late, but a decent first "official" message.

(Now if I can code the site to look decent)

[Karma: 0 (+/-)] Scott on 10.03.05 @ 08:22 AM PST [link] [No Comments]


Tuesday, September 27th

New Home for Couchie.com!


Okay, finally got my domain moved off of Earthlink. I'm so happy that it went so smoothly for the actual switchover, that I won't go into the freaking nightmare that it was to deal with Earthlink, yet. On the good service side, thanks to Globat for hosting (can't really beat a deal of free for a year!). Coming off of the very complex system that is Earthlink, it was very refreshing to see how Globat's system worked.

And thanks to Network Solutions for changing my account so I could make the transition through them,

And for both (I think) for getting the site switched over and active in less than eight hours!

If I'd known it was this easy to make the switch, I would have done it ages ago!

Now I can play.
[Karma: 5 (+/-)] Scott on 09.27.05 @ 11:54 AM PST [link] [No Comments]


Tuesday, August 30th

Petals Around the Rose


Figure using Petals Around the Rose would be a more interesting first test message than the default "Hello World"

Not sure if I cheated, but I read the Bill Gates link to it and it just clicked. Took me about 10 minutes to figure out. How 'bout you?
[Karma: 7 (+/-)] Scott Couchman on 08.30.05 @ 07:09 PM PST [link] [No Comments]