ePubs and Meanderings

Just found a really cool plugin for Firefox that allows you to read ePub files - EPUBReader. It's cool if you use it with Project Gutenberg's SciFi Bookshelf - much Astounding Stories pulp available. Too bad I don't have much time to read these days.

Enjoying some iced tea and hanging.

I have been experimenting with my Acoustic-Electric ukulele. We have had a Pignose amp forever, and I finally snagged a patch cord and got 6 AA batteries (no power supply) and put it together. I was mainly interested in if the pickup in the uke worked. It does, although with the limited tonal range of the Pignose, you only have so much that you can do, sound-wise. One way of getting tone is to open the amp up to varying degrees. I need to find a way to jack into the laptop.

Experimented with Audacity to do a multitrack recording of some uke music - and the netbook stutters on the overload, even when I overclock. Oh well. I wish I could find a program to do that, and maybe one that I could edit video together so I can make a layered one, like Julia Nunes. That girl ROCKS!

Had a good three egg omelette with turkey, cheeze, and tomato this morning. I liked it... alot.

Finally got some mirrors for the big bathroom and hung them up yesterday. They look ok, and I can now see my face when I try and shave and whatnot.

NetFlix via Blue-ray

This is a shot of Dexter Season 1 Episode 1 coming over the wired network into the Blue-ray player. The new BLP can do Amazon video on demand, NetFlix, YouTube, and there are some video podcasts it will play (including NBC Nightly and Diggnation!). Now if I can get the Daily Show, I'd be hooked up.

NetFlix Streams

This is a screen-cap of a NetFlix stream of the mini-series "Tin Man". First thing I am watching. I like - the streaming service is high quality and everything looks AWESOME! Not really caring much about the DVD deal - might play with it some, but mainly interested in the streams.

Netbook Tweaks

Went back into the breach and uninstalled a bunch of ASUS straggler programs and cleaned the whole shebang up. Next, I killed iTunes and all of it's straggler programs, and from there tweaked some registry crap, defrag, and then used CCleaner to zorch and overwrite the Recycle Bin and blank hard drive space.

I decided to play with XBMC, the old X-Box Media Center that has since been ported to most other platforms. I played with it before, but figured I'd give it another go. So far it's cool. Before I had a machine with plenty of processor, but about half a gig of memory. Now I am rocking 2 gigs of memory and 4 gigs of ReadyBoost goodness (via a 4 gig SD memory card totally devoted to ReadyBoost) - and what a difference it has made! No stutters at all. Not sure I like the interface, but I am playing.

Also using Hulu Desktop exclusively for Hulu viewing. It allows you to low-rez the video by default. Hulu still stutters for me - probably need to increase the pipe to the house, but I am a cheap somebody. Works well. I wish XBMC still had a working plug-in for Hulu'ing, but Hulu kills it every time it gets hacked, so might as well not bother. Would have been nice.

Gotta clean up the Man Cave a bit.

Played with the Touch a bit today. Had it over my MIL's house, but the wifi didn't reach. Interesting, because the last time the boy was home he picked it up just fine with his Mac Laptop. I guess the Laptop has a better antenna.

Time flies when you are coming off vacation.

And what a week it was...

This is a pic of me playing with the Wifi version of the new iPad at a BB in SC. I like - the popup keyboard is AWESOME and even though it is a bigger Touch, it is still cool. Not $500 cool, but cool. That is Julia Nunes via the YouTube player app.

Started out the week painting inside. Not into painting. That's about all I have to say about that. Watching Zena Season 1 and have Hercules Season 1 waiting. I like, but they haven't re-released the other seasons, so they seem to be unavailable at the moment. Oh well.

Looked into a USB TV tuner, but might not work on my netbook, so nogo. Almost bought an old MAC at a yard sale, but no disks or mouse and no idea what OS it was running. Ate at some bar-b-q place in SC and it was cool, but I seem to have the squats now.

I guess thats what I've been up to.

Julia Nunes ROCKS!

This lady is great. I just got a new ukulele and did a YouTube search for interesting uke related video and Julia Nunes came up. I love her style - both her originals and the covers she does are masterful and genuine, and her videos are very creative - check how she harmonizes with herself. The story goes that she did a Ben Folds cover, Ben saw it, and invited her to open for him a few times. COOL! I wonder what programs and platforms she is using to make these.

Anywho - I am inspired. Maybe I'll do one. Maybe not. Who knows.