Daytona24.com

A Dark Knight

2008-07-19T14:52:00.003-04:00

I had trouble sleeping last night, I went to see The Dark Knight. However why did I have such a hard time sleeping, my first thought was that I pounding a can of Coke right before bed, however it was that I tried to go to sleep after seeing the best movie I have ever seen.

Its hard trying to get some sleep when your trying to process what it is that you just witnessed, an epic movie that was perfect in ever single way. My expectations were VERY high as the reviews started coming in, how could it ever live up to such a high bar? Well it did. I'll say there were plenty of moments where even the slightest left turn could have ruined the movie (much like what happened in the first four movies) but every time the movie did not disappoint, Rachel never told anyone who Bruce was, if this was a Burton or Schumacher movie she would have told everyone!

But it wasn't great acting it was great storytelling and writing that sets this movie apart and the fact that director Chris Nolan just "gets it", he knows how to make a Batman movie, if I was capable of making a Batman movie, this is how I would make it.

As for the cast in this movie, unbelievable, but we knew that for the most part, yet Aaron Echart not only played both Harvey Dent well but nailed Two-Face as well; and there are no words except "and the Oscar goes to Heath Ledger" for his portrayal of The Joker.

I left this movie last night so happy that I wanted to cry, yes that's how happy I was. Not only do I have one of the greatest movies of all time as a Batman fan I now have two!

So as I lay in bed last night perhaps it was sheer joy, the haunting images of the Joker, or just that can of Coke settling in it was nonetheless one of the best nights of my life.

I can only thank Mr. Nolan and the cast of The Dark Knight for 152 minutes of pure joy and satisfaction. I get chills just thinking about it!

Reflection on my Vacation

2008-07-09T23:20:00.002-04:00

I'm back to work this week after last weeks vacation, probably one of my best vacations ever. I am a very technology driven guy, that's no surprise here from what I've posted. I like my technology, I like what it does for me, I enjoy using it and I enjoy researching it and buying it. One thing I still pride myself in is buying the right tech and usually getting it at the right time. However last week I enjoyed a rather nice techless week.

Now that's not to say I didn't use tech, I still did what I needed to do, but something was different. Everyday at work and throughout the day I check email, use the web, twitter and generally just sit around the computer, even at home. Last week I did not do that. At times I even came back to my phone to missed text messages or phone calls and on my PDA I had tons of twitter messages just piled up. When it came to email I simply just weeded out the junk mail and let the rest of it sit there.

What a relaxing week that made for, of course this week its all coming rushing back full throttle and I'm back to normal. But last week for this tech guy it was all about playing with the kid, going for walks, catching up on some missed shows and generally relaxing in the outdoors.

I've got another week coming at the end of the month, but I'll have more tech by then (just not my iPhone yet), will I have the same type of week or is one week just enough for me. I'm hoping for another relaxing week, I've got a whole Harry Potter book to read!

PS3 Trophies Arrive with 2.4 Firmware Update

2008-07-02T15:10:00.002-04:00

Let this be the first blog post to say who cares about PS3 trophies. I was reading somewhere (maybe on IGN) that the poster was going to start getting cross plateform games on the PS3 now over the 360 "when these trophies" really kick in. Trophies have arrived, but guess what, I don't care.

What I do care about is 360 Achievements, and here's why: because they've been there from the beginning. Sure in the beginning some achievements were pretty easy to come by but it doesn't matter because they have always been there and they are in EVERY game (arcade or retail). This is not the case for the PS3 since first off today there is only 1 game with trophies (Stardust was patched to add them), secondly not all games can or will support them and thirdly any game you've already played and can get trophies for you'll have to play again. You see that's the biggest issue, no direct comparison. Sure you can say that if I've been playing 360 for 2 years and have all these achievements and someone comes along and they buy one today they'll have a much smaller score but that's pretty fair in my book. Now lets look at it from the other perspective that maybe I've bought, finished, and sold every PS3 game since launch but here comes ole Johnny who picks up Stardust today having never played another PS3 game and lo and behold he's got a better trophy score than me? Doesn't seem very fair to me.

I'll give Sony credit they've come along way with the PS3 and its a great Blu ray player, but they things that were just added today were included with the 360 on day one. XMB in game, check, but not if I'm watching a movie! I will tell you that as annoying as it can be to get a message or something during a movie or watching a video its pretty cool on the 360 that you're always in touch with your friends.

Today's updates not that big a deal for me since I don't play games on the PS3 nor do I have many friends that do either so there's really no need to access the XMB in game for me.

Sony just seems to add things at random to the PS3 and the PSP for that matter, recently a google search icon was added to the PSP, that is cool, except that the PSP web browser only works with websites created before the turn of the century! Is it that hard to give the device a useable web browser. It just goes to show that Sony doesn't really have a plan, and really everything added recently from the store to this update is just the 360 dash from launch.

Its really a shame to becuase I am using my PS3 more these days to watch streaming content, becuase one thing I will say about the PS3 over the 360 is that the PS3 is MUCH quieter.

Thanks for todays update Sony, now next time inovate and put something out there thats really cool, because watching your videos where you try to explain what the new cool additions are is just painful!

New Year Resolutions, Half Way Point

2008-06-22T20:58:00.002-04:00

So I thought I'd take a look back on the New Years Resolutions I made this year (digital life resolutions at least) and see how I've done.

The first one was getting a laptop, well since I'm blogging this on a laptop I'd say "check" to that one! Although I was 99% sure I was going to get an iBook (actually a MacBook) and that I'd put XP or Vista on it. Well I got a Dell XPS since it was way more powerful for price and it came with Vista. Now to be fair the years not over and I'm once again itching to replace my iBook with a MacBook, I don't have to spend a fortune anymore however since I got my new powerful machine in the Dell.

Next up was my garage project, while I left behind my garage theater idea I decided to boost up the audio portion of things, as of now I've actually gotten rid of my linux music server and replaced it with the PC that was serving the music to it, there's a new baby on the way so I needed a new home for that PC. I was able to add an old 5 dics DVD changer for CD's and I was given a set of speakers for the garage that are pretty awesome and I'm borrowing a reciever currently for use. As for the outdoor speakers, they were a birthday present. I've set it up so that if a projector is available it can be hooked up rather easily for some in garage theater.

When it came time to replace that digital camera this year I listened to some advice and got that digital SLR, best camera I've ever had and I have some of the best pictures I've ever taken since I've gotten it. The best thing is that I've left AA batteries behind and there's no better feeling than that!

Ugh, video games, I'm not even going to go into this! I want to stop buying them, why can't I? I've gotten some good ones including Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, but others like Call of Duty 4 and GTA 4 just sit unplayed, even others like Lego Indy I don't have time for. I have stopped buying Arcade games as much but lets face it that's just becuase there's not that much out!

Last thing on the list was GPS, no dice here and it's probably off the table, no real need. I'm planning to upgrade my phone to the new iPhone 3G and I'm hoping the GPS in that or a third party app will suffice, I don't do that much traveling to places I'm unfamiler with by myself to warrant a GPS purchase.

All in all the best part of all this is that I've actually managed to pull myself out of debt instead of putting myself in it! The hard part now is waiting, I'm not a patient person so I can't just run out and get stuff now. I'm also trying to get other non tech stuff like you know new clothes, but lets face it thats not fun shopping. In any case that my wife will do, as for getting her to use any of the new tech, at this point I'm just happy she lets me buy it!

An Update is Available!

2008-06-17T23:13:00.002-04:00

So the heading of this blog post is both to be good and bad, good in the sense that today marked the official arrival of Firefox 3, which I did my part and downloaded 3 times today since if I'm going to be a part of this world record I might as well participate and second because apparently the Comcast DVR was updated last night. Want to guess which one I'm excited about?

I'm not one to get excited about browser updates especially when they say there's not much cosmetic change to them but today's Firefox 3 update is pretty nice. Even on my quite old laptop at work I already have seen an increase in page loading when browsing (not that I browse at work) and the smart address bar (the Awesome Bar) is pretty cool and I'm sure it will get better over time. What the update did do for me is get me to install Firefox on my Vista laptop which was the one place I wasn't using it so I'm pretty much full time on the browser now. One thing that I didn't really notice too much at home but enough at work is the resources that Firefox 2 seemed to use which with the new release they say that is vastly improved. In any case I'm happy about this.

What I'm not happy about is the update to the Comcast Scientific Atlanta DVR, first off no new features here just the old lets take away a usable menu item. In this case the ability to set volume control to Fixed or Variable. WHAT? yep someone decided that that was no longer needed, the problem is that it is. You see tonight my wife kept saying to me I can't hear the TV, well thats because the DVR volume was way down! To make things even better Comcast apparently felt that if your in the on screen guide and you enter a channel number you no longer are just attempting to see whats on that channel while in the guide you want to leave the guide all together and go directly to said channel.

WHY GOD WHY must you make such silly, stupid changes to this already crappy DVR? How about adding some good guide data and the ability to record season passes without recording repeats or something else otherwise usable? Can't the interns just get people coffee like every other company, why must they experiment on the DVR box?

Not to mention Nintendo's update today which according to them will enhance my Wii experience, but to them that means combating the Homebrew crowd, I say let them be and please don't bother me to install a "security" update firmware. Here's an idea go develop something cool, then bother us to update our firmware.

Well at least Sony seemed to make a few interesting firmware announcements this week, but then again Sony likes to announce things, they don't like to actually release and implement things! Can't wait to get that Google search button on my PSP XMB, oh the things to look forward too!

So to recap, Comcast update BAD, Nintendo update BAD, Firefox update GOOD, and Sony update I give them a GOOD on the announcement and a Whatever on the pending release!

I've Freed the Penguin

2008-06-14T22:57:00.002-04:00

It was going to happen and it finally did, I've freed the penguin, the Linux Penguin! Well not actually freed, but I'm sending him to a new home. That also puts me down to one less computer and one less operating system. This of course is a good thing for me and its all part of the fall preperation for baby #2. It also tiddied up things a bit since now I don't need to be running one computer to stream music to another computer, and in the meantime I've finally added those outdoor speakers to enjoy for the summer!

People ask why do you need four computers? Well all those computers have jobs to do and just last night they were all hard at work: the laptop was playing WOW (clearly the most fun), the desktop was converting some small videos, the iBook was doing some downloading, and last but not least the older desktop was doing some video converting, yes it was a busy evening.

Yet freeing the penguin is only the first step since soon I'll be getting an iPhone and thats going to change things yet again for me, but change is good right, yes as long as its not too painful!

A Different Kind of Summer Movie for Me

2008-06-08T20:22:00.003-04:00

In a summer packed with movies like Indiana Jones, Iron Man and The Dark Knight today I saw a very different kind of summer move, Sex and the City. My wife really wanted to see this movie as she is a very big Sex and the City fan, I'll admit I've seen every episode and have even met Michael Patrick King. When we started dating she would make me watch them and for the most part I'll admit I did enjoy them, there were worse things she could be making me watch. One year for work I was dragging her to a dinner function and she asked me who the speaker was and I told her some guy named Michael Patrick King, she nearly jumped out of her shoes, its been the only work function she's ever actually enjoyed since. Perhaps some of the draw for me is knowing that the writer/director of this series is actually from our area, in the same city actually so thats pretty cool.

So today I took her, heck we havn't been on a "date" in forever anyway and it was like 100 degrees out. So my parents took our son and off we went. There were a total of 13 guys in the theater which surprised me, of course we were all with our women except for one questionable one and two that were really old. The problem with a chick flick is no cool trailers, although as if to throw the guys a bone they gave us Hancock. The movie was long but releatively enjoyable, a little depressing in the middle and just as off the wall as Sex and the City always is, there's a whole lot of drama that is part of Sex and the City, my biggest issue has always been for four women who are supposed to be searching for love and happiness everytime they seem to get it they find a way to muck it up. One thing the movie in my opinion was missing was a cameo by one Samuel L. Jackson, "I am sick of these four mother *&%$ing women tying to find mother *&%$ love!" Alas Carrie Bradshaw was not recruited for the Avengers Initiative.

Just like the trailer they showed for Mama Mia I know that come this fall I'm bound to see this movie probably about a hundred times, my wife unlike me can rewatch movies over and over again. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go watch Rambo again to regain some of my manness back.

Rotten to the Qore!

2008-06-03T22:22:00.003-04:00

I was really against the PS3 for the longest time, but honestly lately I've gotten to like it. For the most part due to the Blu ray player and the fact that they've finally gotten some more of their media issues worked out and thank god for the new store.

Then today I find out some pretty cool news, Veronica Belmont will be hosting a new monthly newszine of sorts on the Playstation Network! Cool! I think wow Playstation is really starting to get this whole community thing. Then I dive down to get more information and there it is, $2.99 per episode or $24.99 for the year, WHAT?

Here's where that PSN is free crap goes right out the window! Today I downloaded a free gamerpic and theme from Gamestop plus a free video offer from Starz and two demos from Xbox Live, on top of that new Rock Band content was out sure I pay my annual $50 but dammit if I don't feel there is content given, even outside the whole play online thing. The PSN update every Thursday is usually a letdown of sorts and most of it is the stuff that's already been released on Xbox Live earlier that week.

Playstation, PSN and PS3 just always seem to be a whole lot of promises and a whole lot of nothing, where is Home, where is this video download service that only they have, where is the Agency MMORPG (that maybe one person outside of World of Warcraft and Age of Conan and LOTR online will care about)?

This new show with host Veronica Belmont would have been a great way for Sony to pump out some good PR, instead its just Sony's way of stealing $25 a year from you to talk about games you really don't care about and promises they won't keep. With so many free gaming sites with loads of video and not to mention more game magazines priced cheaper than you can shake a stick at who really wants to pay for direct marketing from Sony?

Not me, well at least its a great Blu ray player!

When the little ones leave home.

2008-05-26T22:34:00.004-04:00

Oh its a touching story, but no not my little ones per say (my son is no where near old enough to head out on his own yet!) but three little robins headed out into the big world this weekend. Every year there is a robin that nest under my deck. I never take down the nest so each year its ready and waiting for her (at least I'm guessing its the same bird). I guess its kind of my way to give back to nature. Sure I scare her away alot when I go out the door to the deck and sure it makes me jump when she takes off but this year we developed a few I'll sit here you stay there moments, it was touching.

Interesting this year I got to catch a few moments that I haven't in the past. I've included pictures of the babies being fed (ala my new digital camera) and you'll just have to take my word for it that on Sunday I caught two of the babies taking off from the nest as I came out of my shed, there they went.

It's pretty neat seeing nature up close like that, hopefully the new robins will do well in the world and until next year hopefully mama will do well.

Trip to Guitar Center

2008-05-24T21:10:00.003-04:00

So today Logan MacLeod and I took a trip to Guitar Center to pick up some cable adapters for the new mixer. Have you ever gone somewhere shopping where you wish you were smarter and more talented so you could appreciate more of what was around you? That was me at Guitar Center. I play the guitar, albeit not that great, and with the new podcast I'm more into producing audio shows so I'm walking around GC looking at all this great technology and all these guitars thinking wow I could spend ALOT of money in this place!

So I guess in hindsight its better that I'm not talented enough to buy lots of stuff at GC! I did pick up a new cable to hook my electric guitar up to my amp, the one I had broke along time ago so I threw it away. One thing I'd like to get is a new electric guitar, the one I have is old and as I found out today not in the best shape since I haven't used it in quite some time. Maybe I'll look into getting back into that and making a better investment.

The interesting thing is that this was not the normal music instrument store of yesterday, I was surprised to see ALOT of technolgy running through this place, heck they even sold Apple and Dell computers! There was more softward on the shelves in this place than some computer stores.

Its funny how you get involved in something on the lesser end of the price scale (our mics are from Radioshack and were about $20 each) but there is always a higher end of the scale (I asked Logan is he was ready to upgrade to one of the $900 mics!). One thing we did leave without this time was a pop screen for our mics and we are looking into getting a headphone amplifier.

In any case I did come home and hook up my electric guitar and start playing again so thats good. Of course we headed to Radioshack afterwards to pick up some "lower end scale" headphones!

We get to use the new mixer tomorrow, can't wait!

P.S. they sold Rock Band at Guitar Center for those of us with a little less talent!

Accumulating Audio Recording Equipment

2008-05-23T21:41:00.002-04:00

While I have only been involved in podcasting for three months or so it seems my co host and I have been accumulating quite a bit of audio recording equipment. We started honestly enough with a cheap mixer, two mics and audacity for free to record the shows. Since then we realized we needed some in the field equipment so we both bought handheld recorders and I bought a mic for both, then we added some more microphones and now we've picked up a new "advanced" mixer which we'll get a chance to use this week. On top of all that we've gone to at least a two computer setup for the show.

Now all we need is a bigger table to record the show on! We started out simple enough but realized that if we wanted to grow and get better and better we'd need to put a little investment into this little hobby, just like every other hobby.

But you know what its pretty damn fun, and being that we're both tech heads and geeks this all falls well into line with our other interests as well.

Sure it won't be long before we're building our very own studio in the backyard or something. So if you havn't gotten a chance to listen to our show head over to www.toooldtogrowup.com and download the latest episode (then download them all) and let us know what you think.

We're spending our money to make spending time with us more fun!

The Desire to be Creative!

2008-05-17T12:31:00.002-04:00

I've always had a hankering to be "creative" which most people probably do, whether its for yourself or the desire to be seen or heard by others. A long time ago I wrote short stories, liked to draw and had tons of fun building lego's and playing with toys. These days I'm a bit grown up but still like to do things like write, blog and recently take photos, not to mention co host the Too Old to Grow Up! podcast. My last venture was creating videos on the computer which I mostly did around home movies but a parody of the Sopranos opening credits got quite a bit of play on YouTube.

These days I've taken up photography after the amazingly expensive purchase of my Nikon D40 and concurrent lens purchase (but it was worth it) and also feeling the desire to get back into writing. I've been writing the story of the first year of Too Old to Grow Up! which I'm sure will end up being a gripping nail biter but more interestingly I've started developing a character story of sorts. Whats also fun is that I have a partner in photography which keeps a nice friendly challenge going and a collaborator on the story which has already helped it tremendously.

Hopefully these creative juices may lead to something in the future where more people than just myself will get to enjoy them, until then I'll just have to have some fun with them for awhile.

The Big Video Game Delima

2008-05-14T21:45:00.002-04:00

I've been playing video games for a LONG time, since the beginning of Pong in the home I've played and owe many a game system and many more actual games. I've always been a gamer yet there are times when I question if I really am a gamer. Nowadays I can go long stretches without buying a new game unlike times gone by when I would buy a lot more but now it seems its either feast or famine with games.

Here's where I'm at lately. I haven't been wondering around the lands of Azeroth in Warcraft as much as I used to and my friends forgot who I am in Halo. Yet I've added such games to my collection like Call of Duty 4, GTA IV, Mario Kart Wii, Smash Bros Brawl and just today I bought Wii Ski and I'm waiting for Wii Fit next week.

Yet lately when I get free time I just want to sit and either read or watch TV, heck today I just wanted to sit outside for awhile. In all of this however the most recent fun I've had was playing Mario Kart Wii with my two year old son.

Why is it then that these games catch my eye, I must have them but then there's no time to actually play them? Or is it just that I'd rather not? Perhaps I need a vacation to catch up on all this gaming!

Well I haven't blogged in awhile and now I'm back with a ramble about how I have no time to play games. I guess its good, I have alot going on and I'm also starting to delve back into my creative side as well. I guess the ultimate question is will I ever not be a gamer, I guess the answer to that question will come someday, but for now I'll just try to buy a little less and play a little more.

Until next time!

Simplifying the Media

2008-05-06T23:01:00.001-04:00

My greatest home improvement work resides in the ever changing and growing face of my home media. The hardware and network that allows me to work with and share my media throughout the home. Some of those pieces are connected and some are not, some are automated and some require a bit of help. Although technically and financially I am far from the complete package I have never been quite as close as I am now.

For all the work that I put into this, simplification seems to be the greatest tool for me. At times I will admit I try to make it complicated but its all a part of determining what works and what doesn't. Sometimes things work but long term are just not really cut out to continue in service. Case in point my iBook and Linux computers, the Linux box will soon find itself departed from the overall network as a computer is moved and replaces it.

Over the weekend I purchased a TV which was placed in the bedroom, well I soon found out that it indeed fit in the living room entertainment center and was much more fitted for that location, that in turn put a few other moves in place such as a new added job for my Zune in the bedroom to watch things like podcasts (podcasts are automated to the Zune, movies and videos are not in my settings).

Another thing I did today was remove two 5 disc DVD changers from active service, and I've done something I almost never have done, I am for the first time relying on game systems as DVD players.

Its all a part of the changing landscape of a media environment, one that needs to work for me and not against me, and the key is simplification, otherwise my wife will never use any of it!

del.icio.us Tags: DVD,Blu ray,ibook,Linux,DVD Changer,Home Network

The New View of My Vizio

2008-05-03T23:39:00.001-04:00

I was planning to get a new TV for the bedroom, if you've read any of my past blog posts you know that. I wasn't planning on getting one this weekend. My biggest problem was price and size weren't working out for me, but guess what they did this weekend.

Vizio is a brand that I probably wouldn't check out all that much but this past year it seems the brand really took off and I can already see why, its a pretty darn nice TV.

Sure I haven't spent that much time with it and it is a TV for the bedroom but I really think its going to work for what it was purchased for.

My biggest problem was getting my dang PS2 hooked up to it, I use my PS2 for watching DVD's in the bedroom because its small nice size is nice. But I will tell you it was SO freaking hard to get that thing to display 16x9 progressive scan properly and once I figured out how to adjust the "hidden" settings I still had to manually set the TV to "wide mode" since apparently the PS2 doesn't send the right signals. I guess I may be asking too much of an age old video game system but really, why do I always have to jump through hoops with Sony?

In any case my digital home is moving closer and closer to what it should be since now I can finally use my Zune in the bedroom for podcasts and photos and such since it can finally be hooked up to a TV!

Now if you've excuse me I have to go watch some TV!

Backwards Time?

2008-05-01T18:55:00.005-04:00

So I'm at a training today and we look over at the wall and there's the clock right, no big deal. Until we realized the clock was backwards, completely backwards. Let me tell you how interesting that makes the day when you're looking at the clock.

Everytime you stop and look at the clock you have to wonder for a second where you're at. Although it was backwards it told correct time.

Luckily the training was interesting enough that the day went by rather quickly but I just couldn't leave without taking a quick photo of the "backwards clock" before heading out for the day!

Making Friends on the Wii is NOT Easy!

2008-04-29T23:47:00.001-04:00

I've had my Wii for probably over a year now but never really did much with it online other than the normal web browsing or Everybody Votes channels but recently that changed. I picked up Mario Kart for the Wii on Sunday when it was released. I decided to try out the online component of it and boy was I surprised. At first I thought I was going to be hit with a lot of disconnected errors but that went away and I was playing Mario Kart online!

What I will say is that even though I've only won once and I've had to fight just to stay at the front of the pack (2nd place feels like a win mostly) its been a TON of fun. Having made some friends on the Comic Forums I decided to trade some "friend codes". That's where the trouble lies.

Its not bad enough that Nintendo requires you to swap Wii codes for friends but then you have to swap codes for Mario Kart then if you want to play some Smash Bros. its time to swap codes again. UGH if that's not bad enough once you send a friend a code they have to send you there's back! I can't even tell you if on the other end it tells you the name of the person who's sending you a code or if anything happens at all on the other end?

Its kind of like for Live your telling someone your name, but on the Wii you have to swap Social Security Numbers, how often would you make friends that way? That's what I figured too.

del.icio.us Tags: Wii,Nintendo,Mario Kart,Live,Super Smash Bros.

What Did We Do Before DVR's?

2008-04-24T22:33:00.001-04:00

Well the weather is getting warmer and more time is being spent outside, and its being spent outside later. So what that means is that while the shows start at 8 p.m. I am nowhere near ready to watch them. Its especially needed on a night like tonight because I'm a big Survivor fan, an office junkie, and I'm still trying to figure out Lost. The DVR makes sure it takes care of it all for me, one after another they get recorded and prepared for viewing.

So I ask, what did we do before the DVR, well I can tell you at times what I did and it was utilize multiple VCR's to get everything recorded at times. Yet even with the VCR it really mattered how well you set the darn thing, not clearly as easy as preparing the DVR.

Although it's funny that the DVR is still not as prevalent as the cell phone or email, there are actually people out there that still don't have them. While it was a short time ago that I remember the excitement of getting my first DVR, it seems like everyone at least should have one these days.

If you still don't have a DVR and you're still struggling with that VCR, perhaps knowing that you'll not have to deal with that blinking 12:00 anymore might finally set you straight!

del.icio.us Tags: DVR,VCR,Lost,Survivor,The Office

Pennsylvania Representative, Me?

2008-04-24T18:12:00.001-04:00

Well that's what I'm going for at least, hey I've been blogging, twittering and podcasting now for awhile (okay I've only been podcasting for like two months) but still if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, well you get the idea.

Anyway I'm submitting this truly wonderful blog of mine to 50 Bloggers in 50 States and hopefully I'll get some notoriety!

I've never been one for politics so this is the closest that PA Representative and Daytona24 will likely ever come!

del.icio.us Tags: Theres a Blog in my Soup

Hope You Like the New Design

2008-04-19T16:36:00.001-04:00

I decided today that it's time to move beyond a tech only Blog. After spending some time working on Too Old to Grow Up for a few months now I like the flexibility of being able to tackle different topics.

I'm using this as another way as well to expand the uses of my Twitter and Flickr accounts as well.

My old Blog over at Live.com which you can still find here was similar in its content. When I acquired daytonatwentyfour.com I decided to keep things focused to tech, while I won't be going into life philosophies or anything I'll use this time to expand onto some other "off tech topics" in the future.

By the way if your looking for some more fun, please check out Too Old to Grow Up!

del.icio.us Tags: Too Old to Grow Up,Blog,Tech,Flickr,Twitter

Too Old to Grow Up Tech!

2008-04-17T22:35:00.001-04:00

In the beginning of this year I had such high expectations that I would post every weekday to my tech blog, then reality set in and I realized that wasn't going to be possible. Then among other things not long after the year started at the end of March I started up Too Old to Grow Up! with my friend Logan MacLeod.

Turns out it's not easy to run two blogs and a podcast when its not your day job!

In any event its been a blast, and its also been a great way to put to use some tech. The laptop gets the most use as it actually records the episodes we do each week. In preparation for the podcast we made the decision to get some decent equipment early on and purchased a nice mixer and some good Radioshack microphones but it was getting the iMic that has recently been the biggest difference!

Audacity has been the software of choice although early on we thought Podstation was going to be it. Along with our in studio equipment both Logan and I picked up different but great Olympus portable audio recorders, I also picked up a nice portable mic to go with mine, Logan takes home the prize as his records in WAV format which easily imports into Audacity.

Of course although my video camera which I've had has not gotten any work for the new podcast its only a matter of time, but surely my new Nikon D40 will be taking some great pictures at shows etc in the future.

Hey I'm a geek at heart in many ways, whether its Daytona24's Digital Life or Too Old to Grow Up! I get to have a little fun and hopefully someone out there is doing a little reading and enjoying a little listening!

del.icio.us Tags: Too Old to Grow Up,Radioshack,Olympus,Nikon-D40,iMic

We're gonna need a bigger MyBook!

2008-04-14T23:24:00.002-04:00

Changes are abound in my life in the upcoming year (all good don't worry) and with changes in life come changes in tech. A location that now houses a secondary PC will be needed at which point that PC will be moved to replace another. Hopefully the PC removed will find a good home rather than be tossed out, but that remains to be seen.

In any case along with the changes came a need for more backup space, you see I had a 250GB hard drive so a 250GB My Book was sufficient for back up purposes of course that was until I went and got myself a second internal hard drive of 500GB. So this past weekend I took advantage of a price cut in the Circuit City flyer on a 500GB My Book Essential drive and added it to my main PC. Of course this forced me to take out a USB 2.0 PCI card in my secondary PC to add the necessary USB ports to add not only the new My Book but the photo printer which would be moved from the secondary PC to the main PC.

Good changes of course, yet I hate to ever remove technology and in this case I had to make the choice to leave behind fax and caller ID features on my main PC and remove the modem PCI card. Wow, you think that wouldn't be that big a deal!

I also decided it was time to put away the iBook for now, it now resides in the same location where I keep my new laptop when not in use, still in good order just not in full operation for now.

So along with a good weekend test with my new digital camera it was a good weekend for technology, allot of moves and restructuring took place in just two short days, more to come in the future!

del.icio.us Tags: MyBook,iBook,PC,digital camera,USB,PCI

SDTV Disappearing Act

2008-04-10T21:51:00.001-04:00

There was a time when if you were choosing to buy a new TV you thought about buying an HDTV, nowadays it seems like if your looking to buy a new TV it must be an HDTV. There is still a very small selection of SDTV's out there, but its not a great selection. So you may ask why its even a thought, well for the most part I figured it was price. While it's true price is the biggest factor size does play into it as well.

For the record the TV in question to replace was going to be for the bedroom, the current TV is not a bad TV but the problem stems from its lack of any inputs, not even the very old composite kind!

For a guy who proud's himself on a digital lifestyle you can only imagine the anguish of having not only an SDTV but one with no inputs. Sure there's a PS2 hooked up to it as a DVD player but there's a need to jack the volume way up because of the connection and connecting say my Zune to it isn't even an option.

Yes that troubles me, but as it seems for now I need to set those troubles aside. Unless I'm willing to spend quite a bit of money on a large enough HDTV or settle for a sub par SDTV its something I'll have to pass on for now.

It is interesting though to see now more than ever to see the transition from SD to HD, with all this talk of digital converter boxes it seems sooner rather than later owning an HDTV may become the norm.

del.icio.us Tags: SDTV,HDTV,Composite,Zune,digital converter box

A Whole New Way of Taking Photos

2008-03-31T20:58:00.001-04:00

So I finally broke down and bought a new digital camera, and decided to make it a D-SLR. Keep in mind I went from my last camera purchase way back when 2 mega pixels was king to using the camera on my Razer. Needless to say I have not been taking great photos. Sure they are passable for what I do with them which is mostly look at them on the computer or 360 and occasionally print some out on 4x6 or 5x7 stock, but I wanted something more.

Most importantly I wanted to solve two issues, the biggest was snapping photos of my son while he was still in the room. All to often most of my photos are a blur of him passing by or heading off after a cool pose or great smile, I wanted to capture the moment not the moment after! The next was battery life, currently I had been spending more time charging batteries than actually taking pictures. I'll attribute this to a long life for the batteries but even today's normal batteries and so called "digital" batteries were no match for my old camera.

In any case yesterday I went to Best Buy and bought me a Nikon D40, I had been looking at the D60 but figured the 40 was good enough to get me into the D-SLR camp. What I will say after just one day and about 50 photos later that this camera is truly a leap beyond where I've been. I have already taken loads of great smile pictures and action shots, heck I even tried taking some photos of the fish in my aquarium which were normally ALWAYS blurry and they are coming out great. The best part is that so far I haven't strayed a bit from the Auto setting. This is a camera I can truly grow into and hopefully learn how to take great photos all over the place.

Most importantly however is that I can not quickly take great photos of my son, anything beyond that is the icing on the cake. Heck the only downfall I can see is the loads of photos I'll be taking and putting on the computer. But that's the great part about a Digital SLR camera, I don't need to keep running to the photo lab, I can just keep on taking photos!

del.icio.us Tags: D-SLR,Nikon-D40,Photos,Razer

PS3 Update Proves its Blu Ray First

2008-03-25T22:32:00.002-04:00

Sony released the new firmware update for the PS3 today bringing with it first and foremost (and pretty much only) Blu Ray profile 2.0. It's important for PS3 owners (like myself) becuase it clearly makes the PS3 the most up to date Blu Ray player. Sure there are some features die hard video and audiophiles are still wishing for but for the mass majority of us it means we can play all the upcoming Blu Ray movies and thier features with no problems. Those new discs are soon to arrive (by Sony of course) within the next few weeks.

To me it clearly shows that the PS3 is first and foremost a Blu Ray player and thats okay. One feature that seems to still be missing is the ability to copy Blu Ray movies to your PSP but that may be simply becuase there are no movies that support this feature yet (a feature that will simply be just a smaller copy of the movie in SD already on the disc for copying purposes).

PSP/ PS3 connectivity continues to improve with this update and as of this writing it seems the PS3 now supports my Xvid videos (which it didn't before) the same way the 360 does and with fingers crossed it hasnt dropped the connection as it has done in the past, but that may also be because I've not only purchased a new router since I last tried it but also have gone to a wired connection as opposed to a wireless one.

The best feature added with this update is a very simple one, the ability to resume a DVD or supported Blu Ray movie even if you stop and eject the disc. Its something many DVD players have had for a long time and its nice to see it on the PS3.

The PS3 and the PSP are good media devices, the problem is that Sony has taken thier good ole time getting t hem to where they need to be. Yet if they can continue to make improvements along the way its worth it to go along for the ride.

If your looking for a Blu Ray player you should look no further than the PS3 (at least for now).