Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Hitachi 50V500 TV Goes Kaput
I thought this only happened to Sony's LCD TVs...
I’ve had my Hitachi 50V500 HDTV for about 6 years. A few months ago the red started to ghost. It got worse and worse so yesterday I finally found the service manual and fixed it in the service menu. Unfortunately the LCD is going too as shown by the yellow spider web in the picture. After some searching I found I was pretty lucky. The optical engine in these models is known to be faulty, often dying after 1.5-2 years of use. I have around 6080 hours on mine, including the original bulb, so I got my money’s worth.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: manual, TV
Emulating XMLHttpRequest in node.js
I’ve been following the node.js project for a while. It’s a really cool, lightweight, event-based implementation of server side Javascript using V8. I hadn’t used it at all because it was missing a few key features, mainly binary support. I checked the project status a few days ago and lo and behold, binary support had been added. Now it was getting interesting! I decided to start a project to learn a bit about it. node-XMLHttpRequest (node-XHR): XMLHttpRequest emulation to allow reuse of browser based libraries.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: Javascript, node.js, XMLHttpRequest
Using the Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 in Windows 7 x64
In my quest to go paperless (a topic for another post) I purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap S300 duplex sheet scanner. All the reviews I read before purchasing it were glowing, raving about how fast it is, how easy it is to use, etc. So I dropped $239.99 at Newegg and was excited when it came 3 days later. That excitement rapidly turned to frustration. Come to find out, the drivers don’t work very well in Windows 7 x64. As a matter of fact, you get the BSOD almost every time you try to scan something. What was I to do?
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: gtd, paperless, scanner, ScanSnap, windows 7
Jetblue Unlimited Travel for a Month – Should I Do It?
Update: I decided to not buy the All You Can Jet (AYCJ) ticket. Having a 9 to 5 job made it not feasible. It would have paid for itself if I did 3 day weekend trips for the month but the cost of hotels, food, and other transportation made it prohibitive. I have more practical uses for the money such as paying down debt. Have fun everyone who bought tickets!
If you haven’t heard, Jetblue is offering unlimited flights for $599 from 9/8 to 10/8. I’m already flying to NYC for a meeting on 9/10 so it wouldn’t cost that much more to get the pass.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: airlines, flight, travel
Why I Switched Back To Windows From Linux
I’ve been using Windows as my primary operating system for over 20 years, since Windows 2.1x. I’ve used every major release since then plus some exotics like NT for DEC Alpha. But as I get older, more experienced, and more knowledgeable I get more frustrated with Windows. I’ve always loved the command prompt so when I was introduced to the *nix environment about 10 years ago I took to it quickly. I’ve used Linux in the server environment but had limited experience with it as a client OS. Fast forward to a little over a year ago. I began using a Mac at work, running the latest release of OS X. Setting aside the fanboys’ belief that it’s the greatest thing to ever grace a hard drive, I could see real merit in a *nix based client OS. After my experience with OS X and frustration with Vista’s bloat I decided to try Linux on my laptop.
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: linux, ubuntu, windows
A Year Of Eating Correctly (Sort Of)
Last year I posted my goal of forming a diet and nutrition plan based on Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. I wish I read it years ago! It gave me a complete understanding of how to properly organize meals and eat correctly. I’ve followed it now for a bit over a year and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been plenty of days that saw the consumption of foods from the list of things you should never eat. However, even on those days I still followed most of my meals.
In: Goals, Health & Fitness, Uncategorized
Goals: A Year Later
Seeing how it has been nearly a year since my first goal was posted I thought it would be suitable to review my goals. I haven’t looked at this list in quite a while and the results are mixed.
Goal #1: Sell One Item A Day
This goal was short lived. I did manage to sell off a lot of my extra junk over the past year, but not one item a day. I probably have enough stuff to get rid of that I could continue this. Not a high priority, but something I could start doing again.
One Year Later … A New Hope
My first post was one year ago tomorrow, December 3, 2005. My last post was months ago. I haven’t had much of a will to update my blog in a while but that has changed. I’ve decided to start posting again. Along with that I’m going to be doing another face lift and software upgrades.
Waaaaaay too long without an update, so here’s one…
Wow! I can’t believe it has been over a month since my last update. I have a lot to write about.
Driving Days
I spent Monday and Tuesday at Watkins Glen International participating in a PCA driving school. For those who have never heard of such an event, a track driving school put you and your car on a real race track with an instructor. You learn better car control, smoothness, and confidence in yourself and car. There are also classroom sessions to teach strategy and theory. These events are open to anyone with a car that will pass tech.
