So we got a good deal on a 65 inch plasma at hhgregg.  They included a Blu-ray player as part of the package.  I’d thought to myself that someday when I got a Blu-ray player it’d probably be a PS3, but I guess not.  I ran and picked up the BBC’s Planet Earth box set to have some content.  I’d seen it on Discovery when it was first released and was amazed.  I knew I had to have it in HD someday.  We’ve now rented several movies on Blu-ray and my verdict is that it can be quite amazing (like Planet Earth), but mostly not so much.  This has to be a big part of the low adoption rate.  I’ve got to rent some more  to see if I’ve just made bad picks, but so far — I’m not that impressed.

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been very interested in ZFS lately. Well this week, the hypothetical happened to me and ZFS was there to make it a non-event. I was checking up on my newest ZFS’d filesystem (a pair of 1TB drives in a ZFS mirror). I ran ‘zpool status’ to see how the health of the pool was and it reported that one drive had had a checksum error. I’ve been processing gigs of log files from it, so one block error isn’t much of a pattern. I ran a ‘zpool scrub’ to check everything out (it was clean), and I’ll certainly watch that drive a little closer. ZFS made it simple and seamless.

So, I finally got an iPhone. I know it’s a few years behind the time, but the 3GS and 3.0 OS finally made it seem like a complete product. Also, the 32GB model seemed like it was the first to really be big enough as a convergence device. Additionally, the App Store “ecosystem” looked like it had reached the size needed to sustain itself. So, I dumped my no-longer-on-a-contract T-mobile account over to AT&T. So far so good. It’s nice to have a reasonable Internet browser all the time. I’m an NPR addict, so having instant access to their podcasts is awesome. Weather radar in your hand is amazing. I’ve got enough space to hold an enormous number of apps, music, podcasts, pictures, movies, and TV shows to remain computerless for a good chunk of time. I’ve even managed to connect to my office VPN, but I haven’t bought an SSH app to do my normal thing with yet (I live on a terminal). I even found this blog app, so maybe I will get back to posting again.

We went to the 2007 Spring Vesta Home Show on Saturday.  Having been to the South End Home Show last weekend I wasn’t sure how much walking this was going to be, but I was prepared for a lot.  It turned out to be unnecessary.  The show was well organized and setup.  It justified the ticket prices a bit.  There were 7 homes to see and each were basically next door neighbors.  It turns out that the show was more than just seeing what’s out there, it’s a giant for sale ad.  The homes are already sold, but the contents seemed to mostly be setup specifically for the show.  Some things I’m sure will be staying in the homes (ie, garage flooring systems, cabinets, appliances), but much of the other stuff I’m not so sure.  Anyway, we got to see some really cool stuff and have a lot of ideas for the house.

First and foremost, I wasn’t really impressed with the appliances chosen for the homes.  I’ve done a LOT of reading.  It seemed to me that each house pretty much chose each of the major appliances one shouldn’t.  I was a bit surprised.  At least they looked nice.  There were some nice features to the kitchens in terms of cook tops, cabinets, islands, counter tops, and back splashes, but none of the kitchens stood out and made me go “wow”.

If there were a single thing that was consistent among the homes (which do vary widely in theme and content) it was hardwood floors.  Hardwood floors were almost everywhere.  That’s not to say there wasn’t carpet, there certainly was carpet in some rooms, but I believe ALL the homes had hardwood floors for the majority of the lower level (with various kinds of tiling being the other material).  I’m starting to get convinced of it’s value.

Garage floors are something I am interested in, so I made sure to see all of them.  Particularly, I was looking for something done by Ultimate Garage Solutions.  There appeared to be two homes that they did.  I was pretty happy with the flooring.  I kind of wished the homes had chosen some of the more exciting coloring options, but they were still good.  They also provided their cabinet system (which was cool).  One home didn’t have their garage flooring done at all (and having seen the other homes it made it seem incomplete).  Another home had a really interesting flooring that I had not found in my research.  It was done by Victory Swiss Floors.  This flooring consists of polymer tiles that interlock.  It’s a bit hard to describe beyond that.  You just have to see them (take a look at the website).  I don’t think we’ll use them for the garage, but maybe when we get around to doing the gym and maybe even the patio.  They’re cool.  The other homes used flooring systems from a couple of other vendors.  One type was the Williams floor paint (basically).  The other was some sort of flaked system that didn’t feel very durable to my hand.

Home media systems were an interesting thing to see too.  The type and size varied.  There were a few with dedicated media rooms, while others simply had large TVs in the family room.  I recall two having projector systems.  One was large, the other was larger.  Interesting setups.  The others all had LCD and/or Plasma screens.  One, that I think was cool, had the TV mounted up over the fireplace in such a way that at the press of a button on a remote, a screen came down in front of the TV making the setup look like a framed painting print setting above the mantle.  I may try to replicate that.  It was awesome.  The modern minimalist style is really starting to appeal to me and it would be a great way to help accomplish that.

Something I’ve been thinking about is a screened in porch/patio.  I haven’t figured out how to do such a thing with our house, but it’s simmering at the back of my mind for the future.  Each of these homes had some sort of shaded outside sitting area.  Some were more extravagant than others, but they each had them and now I want one.  A couple of homes had these really cool retractable screens.  I didn’t even know such a thing existed.  At the press of a button, these screens come down from small bays running the edges of the roof and completely enclose the porch.  It’s awesome.

Another something I hadn’t really thought about, but now want are organizer systems.  Each home had all kinds of neat little (or not so little) organizers.  Every master bedroom closet had something and most other closets, pantries, and cabinets also had something.  These don’t just look neat now, they look necessary.  Once the house is done, looks like I’m going to be building a bunch.

All in all, neat show and I’m excited to see the next one.

I updated the TV this weekend.  I should first clarify a bit.  Our TV is a computer.  I use a PC with a dual TV tuner in it and Snapstream’s BeyondTV to manage them.  This basically gives us a PVR/DVR.  It’s really nice and takes TV watching to a new level.  With the dual tuners we can record 2 TV shows simultaneously (or watch one while recording another, etc).  Recording shows is as easy as looking them up in the title, keyword, and genre searchable programming guide and telling it to record.  You can even select option like only recording all new episodes of a TV series.  Anyway, we’ve had problems with the box for a couple of years now where it doesn’t like to boot.  If it goes down (crash, reboot, shutdown, power loss, etc) it doesn’t like to come back up.  I’ve suspected that it was the hard drive.  I can’t guarantee that’s it, but I’ve had enough anecdotal evidence to truly convince me.  Well, it finally bugged Shinta enough that we went and bought a new hard drive for the thing on Saturday and I went about the long, arduous process of backing up all our saved TV shows over the network, reinstalling Windows XP (from a pre SP1 disc, I was an early XP adopter), the hours and hours of running Windows Update, installing Snapstream’s software suite (I also have BeyondMedia and the Firefly Remote), and then transferring the backups back.  It took about 24 hours to complete the process.  Things are looking good.  Reboots are clean and easy.  The box works great with just a remote for control.  Now all I need is a big LCD HDTV with DVI or HDMI inputs to hook it up to.

Well, my holster came in Friday, and so I tried my first weekend of ‘packing’.  As I’ve been told, it’s a little work to get used to, but I’m just barely starting to get to the point where I go for a while without noticing ‘it’ there.  I decided to just go for it and didn’t tiptoe.  First day out, I went to dinner, clothes shopping (trying out pants, no less), and electronics shopping.  There wasn’t a single sign of anybody staring at me funny (well, any more than some people tend to anyway).  I picked up a radio scanner to start listening to aviation traffic and just as I was walking in the Radio Shack I started to wonder if the shoplifting-prevention-scanner-things would go off based on a large chunk of metal.  Not a peep.

Sunday turned out even better.  I was a little more used to things, so I gave it another go.  Went to the airport (didn’t pack in the airport, that’s what the car safe is for).  I tried out the new scanner sitting out on their picnic table by the FBO.  I also picked up a FAR/AIM and Memphis sectional to start studying up for getting my license current again next Spring.  There was a decent bit of activity despite the cold.  The helicopter guys apparently were teaching a student.  That was kind of neat to watch.  I think I even saw an auto-rotation.  I’m not a 100% sure, because there was a Cessna 172 nearby that was taxing on out making enough noise I couldn’t tell if the helicopter’s engine was at idle.  It did come down quick, and it struck me as more of an auto-rotation than a normal landing.  It was a bit too much fun just sitting there than I should probably admit.  No warbirds this time; several Cessna 172’s, a couple Piper Cherokee’s, a Super Decathlon, a Cessna 208, and that helicopter (Eurocopter maybe).  I might do it again next weekend.  The scanner worked really well.

I just saw a techie news post about a cool new Sony laptop coming out soon.  Looks like a real good Picturebook replacement.  Naturally, Dynamism has them for pre-order already.
http://www.dynamism.com/g1/main.shtml

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — bluetooth is really taking off. Monday, on my way home, I saw a general Physical Plant maintenance worker sitting in his truck talking on a bluetooth headset. If such technology has penetrated to such depths (I’m not talkind down about such people, just note that they typically are the last to adopt new technologies like this, on par with the proverbial “grandma”) it’s mainstream. I saw an article in yesterday’s school paper that says Oklahoma has a bill in state congress right now that will mandate cellphone usage by drivers be done through a handsfree device. I’m not so sure such a law will do any good, but it could mean more bluetooth headsets in use around here.

I’m so lucky. So, I check my mailbox today and find a little piece of paper. It’s one of the “you have a package that doesn’t fit in the mailbox” notes. I’m not expecting anything, so it was sort of a surprise. Of course it could just be something I had ordered and forgot about (it wouldn’t be the first time). I sign for the package and I’m immediately clueless. It’s a foam lined envelope filled with something that seems relatively large (and hard). Also, it’s from Buy.com, which I haven’t ordered anything from in quite some time. So I open it up and surprise, it’s a Sony Ericsson W800i. That immediately puts me in panic mode. Did I accidently order one? After that recent $900 car repair, I had to come to the realization I wouldn’t be able to get one of these for a long while (if ever). I’m standing there in panic mode thinking I’m suddenly way in the red over a phone, and then I decide to look at the shipping invoice. I notice the ship date and realize it’s gotta be from the wife. That was really sweet. It’s in the charger now. Looks like I’ve got a whole new portable media center!

Black Friday has been a good one. We got to Best Buy just after 5am and waited in the line that wrapped 3/4 the way around the outside of the store. It was a bit nippy standing out there. There were signs that some people had apparently been out there in line a long time. There were chairs, and lots of beverage containers scattered everywhere (even some really nice ones). I hope they got what they were looking for. We managed to pick up a new digital camera. In fact, we just really lucked out on getting it.

We got home a bit before 8am and decided to nap. Well, we thought it would be a nap. It wound up lasting until the evening.

Then we decided to go to Tunica for Hollywood Casino’s Epic Buffet. On Fridays they have all you can eat seafood (including lobster). I managed to eat 4 lobsters. I will loosely call it “all you can eat”. It was really more of an “all you can wait”. They couldn’t cook the lobsters fast enough so you had to stand in line to go through the buffet and I’m talking a long line. I went through one that took me 20 minutes. At least I’m sure I got my money’s worth in crab and lobster alone. Since it’s winter, we didn’t have to deal with the mosquitos, which was nice. They had a bunch of mosquitos in there the last time we were there. I’m stuffed and need to take another nap.