Wireless Hobo

Pink Party 2008 Photos

The school year has come and gone so quickly this year.  <cliche>It seems like yesterday…</cliche> and BOOM it’s Pink Party!

Tags: academy of arts and sciences, alabama, gulf shores, pink party

$34!

We went to see Prince Caspian at the Cobb today.  Michelle, Dylan, and I spent $34 for matinee tickets, kids combo popcorn, and a cobbster popcorn.  $34!  Additionally, the audio was off.  The movie was great.  The company was better.  On the other hand, I was sitting there wondering about the logic of hitting the movie theater every week during this Summer of movie hits.

I put together this theater for each home with plasma or DLP large screened TV’s, Sony sound systems, HD-DVD players, XBox 360’s, and a PlayStation3 for Blu-Ray high definition.  This summer there are a dozen really cool movies out that have pulled us back to the theater, but there are still problems.  In Caspian, the sound was off.  At the end of Speed Racer, we had a family letting their son run up and down the ailes.  Iron Man was fantastic, though.  Now, in a few months, I could BUY all three of these movies for what it cost us to see them in the theater.  Things that make you go hmmmm.

I guess what I am saying is that I just don’t care about the theater experience like I used to… I love my home setups.  I love that I can pick what snack I want out of my fridge.  I love that I can pause or stop the movie.  I love that it is the way it is supposed to be when you go to the theater.

Put another way, I guess I can pay $400+ for twelve summer movies or I can use the theaters I have built more comfortably with friends and family for cheaper in the long run.  Hopefully we will get simultaneous home and theater releases soon.

Tags: blu-ray, hd-dvd, high definition, Home Theater, Movies, prince caspian

Software Essentials: Firefox

Welcome to a new series aimed at new computer users.  It may be a bit Mac-centric; however, I will try to list similar software for Windows as well.  I tend towards freeware for obvious reasons.  Like most folks, I like free.  About every other day I will post a little something about a piece of software that is absolutely essential to your sanity when using a computer in an Internet world.

Today, I will post the very obvious Firefox.  You may see a lot of information about version two, but I highly recommend the new version three beta.  There has been a tremendous amount of coverage of Firefox 3 in the last few months, but I like this synopsis.  ( I love top 10 lists. )  Now one of my favorite things about Firefox is that it is cross platform.  It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

I will be back tomorrow with my next pick to help you get up to speed on your new computer quickly and cheaply.  Good night.

[Update: Getting close to release.  Release Candidate 2 has been posted at this point.  I am finding it rock solid and use it over Safari.  Also, I have restructured this series to be ongoing as regular posts instead of a running article.]

Controlling When and How We Watch TV

I don’t like TV.  No, really.  In its current form, its awful.  Mediacom’s signal is the absolute worst I have ever seen.  I think Dish and DirecTV are both overpriced.  What are you gonna do?

I have to say that since I am now subject to the pains of Mediacom cable TV now, I have turned to Netflix in a major way.  And so should you.  Whether you are a TV junkie or casual watcher, Netflix has become an amazing option for me.  Here’s why. If you buy satellite or cable service, your bill is what?  $50+ a month?  Ouch!  And now they charge extra for High Definition.  Ouch!  AND they have the nerve to charge $40 a month for Internet on top of this.  I say this is absolutely ridiculous!  These are commodity services now.  Yet, I send them a check monthly.

Netflix can give you unlimited DVD, HDDVD, and Blu-Ray rentals per month with only so many out AND now they let you stream TV shows and movies to your Windows-based computer!  That said, you need to check out the hot new addition of the Roku.  You add what you want to watch to an “Instant Queue” and it shows up on your Roku, hit play, and you are watching it a few seconds later.  I have been doing this for a while with Dexter, Jeremiah, Weeds, Hellboy, Superman, Heroes, Japanese anime movies, and Pokemon movies, on demand, when I want!

Netflix is certainly more than just swapping DVD’s in and out.  Definitely check it out!

More albums added…

I added more photos from this year to the photos section: baseball, karate tournament, etc. Go browse!

Photos Returns

Photos returned to this website last night.  It is just a start.  There is a lot to upload into this new format.  I like the new gallery and it is certainly easier to administer.  Good night.

Tags: Photos, picasa