Worst Presentation Ever

I don't think I've ever heard a stronger pro gun control presentation in my life.

Sometimes I hate Google News

I know this is all done via some text search bot and I shouldn't rant but how is this science news?

 

Go buzz

Sorry for inundating with vids but this is just too cool:

 It's a sad time in US history when a hero is persecuted by a religious nut.

More on droids

And now maybe even the manufacture of droids will be simple...

Worker Droids

This clip is pretty fascinating.  Much of what we think of as unskilled labor will soon be supplanted by worker droids.

At the "iCare" lounge in CDG.

At the airport in the "iCare" lounge.  These are not happy faces they are sad only.  Very sad.  Except we get to see you soon.

 

52 Project: Garden Fencing

I think I'm going to stop posting garden projects as separate projects. It's really one big project. This weeks portion of the garden project was to put up a fence on tier 2 to keep the small varmints out (mostly rabbits and a few raccoons).



















































I know it doesn't seem like much but it did take a while and was necessary. Noticed the peas are starting to come up - you can't quite see them in the photos.

52 Projects: Easiest Project Ever

This weeks project was to hook up the speakers in my living room to my computer. I'm tired of swapping CD's in the living room to listen to what I want. I've been putting all my music on my computer through iTunes (copying all the old CD's and I'm even going to purchase a turn table to convert my LPs - yes I'm that old - to MP3's so I can keep them on my computer). I want to be able to play any of my music anywhere in the house, but to start in the living room.

I'm a bit of an Apple Fanboy. Yes you could get something almost as good for less money but it's that "almost as good" that I just don't have time for anymore. Don't get me wrong. I love gadgets and I love geeking out. I've built linux servers from components and developed custom builds of the operating system. I wired my whole house with CAT 5. I built a full local area network including a SAN throughout the house. I put in a secure wireless network for guests and laptops. You can stream movies to any of my TV's. And all this was a lot of work. Hours and hours of learning and configuring. If you don't count my time I saved lots of money too.
For this project I just wanted to wire my speakers into my computer. It's about a 30 foot run. I looked at getting a speaker switch, running wires from my PC to the switch to the attic to the living room. I've done enough of this so I'm pretty fast. I figured I could do this in about 4 hours. The multi speaker box was around $300 and the speaker cable and banana plugs would run around another $75. Then I remember this:

The Apple airport express. It's $100. It has an ethernet port, a usb printer port, and a speaker port. You can stream music wirelessly. I thought I could stream music from my computer, through the wireless network, to the apple airport express and into my speakers (via the speaker port - the one with the jack in it below).

I'd already set aside four hours for this so I figured I'd give it a try. A friend had loaned me his airport express so what the heck. Long and short of this is it took me 5 minute to hook this all together. And it worked perfectly. It was so ridiculously simple it's not even worth describing - just read the directions. From my computer I can now stream music to my living room. Using my iPhone and the Apple Remote product I don't even have to be near my computer to do this.

Going to hook up the family room downstairs and the outside speakers next. At $100 per room I'm still way ahead when you consider my time (and probably even equipment costs). See if my friend ever gets the loaner airport express back ;-).

Project Update: Seeds are growing!

My Garden is starting nicely.  I'll probably transplant this week to bigger pots (still too cold for outside - though I did plant peas and fava beans outdoors this past weekend).

52 Projects: Spring Cleaning?

It's March 26th - Four days into the start of spring. See the photo below and see if you can guess my project for this weekend (and it did take all weekend)




Well it took all week end but I think it was worth it. Still a lot of stuff I probably don't need but at least it looks better.



Probably should of shot more photo's cause I don't know how long this will last.

52 Projects: Winter Walk

I've been walking with my border collie Zoey for five years now. It's done wonders for me both physically and spiritually. Though we walk a lot of different places one of our favorites is Dash Point State Park by our home. We've walked it over 1000 times. I'm going to start a photo essay showing the park in each of the four seasons. These are my winter shots (with some minor comments).

Start of the trail

Can you spot the border collie? She's pretty camouflaged against the snow and damp dirt.

Winding trail covered with snow.

There are lot's of small streams and creeks running through the park.

Again - where's Zoey?

Snow covered bridges - you'll see more of this one in the spring shoot because it's beautiful.

Trails are well marked here - they're used by lots of cyclists (IMBA = International Mountain Bike Association).

Take warning they don't kid

Beautiful but cold winter day (I did this walk on Feb 28th)...do da do do do do...

Gak - Slippery. Under the mud was a lot of blood. Glad I didn't know.

The road out. Total for this walk is about 4 miles. The trails in here easily let me do 7 when time permits.

That's it. Took a lot more photo's but didn't want to post them all here. I'll do another "Photo Project" in a few months in the spring - the comparison will be fun.

52 Projects: Planting the Garden

It's time to start the seeds!  So cool.

First step was figuring out what can be planted when - in addition to my seed guide, I read each packet and developed a planting schedule for the next few months.

I carefully labeled each packet so I know what I planted.  I also (unlike last year) wrote not only the name but the variety of the beast.  Now I can get my hands dirty!

Today I planted (indoors):

• Spinach;
• Mustard Greens;
• Butterhead Lettuce;
• Romaine Lettuce;
• Arugula;
• Mesclun;
• A  bunch of tomato varieties: Brandywine, golden nugget, heirloom, sweet 100, beefsteak, and roma's;
• Eggplant (first time ever);
• Broccoli-Rabb; and
• Leeks.

 

 

We're going to try and get some dirt in this week (the second tier needs some more top soil) so we can put peas and fava beans next weekend.  They can be planted out doors now.