This week I finished Stephen Leeb’s audio book called The Coming Economic Collapse. His thesis is that oil production has peaked and that there will be less pumped next year than this. In the face of growing demand prices will rise and hardship will ensue.
The book is a plea for people and governments to face the problem and take action but failing that he has ideas about where to put money in order to benefit from what will be prevailing economic conditions over the next decade.
Interesting that several of his recommendations have done well over the last 12 months i.e. gold, alternative energy like fpl (wind generation), and oil companies. I have held some of these and will buy more because I think he makes a compelling case.
This weekend I embraced the MacBook Pro. The migration tool made it easy to transfer data and programs from the iMac to the MacBook.
After verifying that the applications work as expected I set about installing Boot Camp. This is the program that has received so much press lately. It allows booting Windows on a Mac. You use an Apple program called Boot Camp Assistant to create a disk partition that will store all things Windows. It then asks you to load a CD with the Windows O/S and proceeds to do a standard Windows install.
This process can go without a hitch but I wanted to install Windows Media Center Edition which complicates things because the O/S comes on 2 CDs. For me, getting around the 2 CD problem meant copying the CD to a flash drive and continuing the Windows install from the flash drive. The only thing that the HowTo's on the web leave out is that the MacBook will hang on reboot if the flash drive is left in the USB port. Wait until the installer asks for the 2nd CD before plugging in the flash drive!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
It’s Here
What was going through my mind when I decided to spend money we didn't have on a MacBook Pro? Convergence. I have a G4 iMac that holds most of my personal effects like music, email, and pictures. And I have a Gateway Wintel laptop that has more than a decade of personal and business financial records. Even more importantly the Windows laptop runs the navigation system that keeps our boat off the rocks and helps avoid other hazards to navigation.
The idea that all these functions could fit onto one computer was too big a temptation to pass up. It has arrived and fulfills all expectations.
The idea that all these functions could fit onto one computer was too big a temptation to pass up. It has arrived and fulfills all expectations.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Nice
Last night we got a call from Kevie’s cousin Lia S. She had received a call from someone she never heard of, Allen in Newark, who said his wife had found a phone on the PATH train and her name was in the directory! It turned out to be my Treo.
What a break that it was recovered by such honest people. I made a date with Allen’s wife Zalina to pick up the phone the next day right here in the neighborhood. I thanked her profusely and tried to give her a reward but she would have none of it. Renews my faith in humanity.
What a break that it was recovered by such honest people. I made a date with Allen’s wife Zalina to pick up the phone the next day right here in the neighborhood. I thanked her profusely and tried to give her a reward but she would have none of it. Renews my faith in humanity.
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Happy 8th Bradley and Stephanie
K went to Millville on Wednesday to check the damage. She found broken glass in the basement and the kitchen door that lets into the garage was open. Dresser drawers were open but nothing was missing as far as she could tell. I don't think there's anything of value in the house that could be carried out in someone's pocket.
Phone calls were made to glass contractors and for fence repair. K filed a police report Wednesday evening.
Friday was a visit to Mom who now talks about having taken trips to Indiana on almost a daily basis. This is a new symptom.
Saturday brought more work on the LR and a trip to Danbury Ice Arena for Bradley's 8th birthday party. I got out on the ice for a while and the kids were wild but contained. What a blast.
Reconnoitered back at the Johnson's to watch BJ open presents and relax with Gia and Ken. Got the tour of their back yard which is being prepped for the house addition. Much of the deck has been dismantled and trees have been cut down. The heavy machinery arrives Monday. Exciting!
Phone calls were made to glass contractors and for fence repair. K filed a police report Wednesday evening.
Friday was a visit to Mom who now talks about having taken trips to Indiana on almost a daily basis. This is a new symptom.
Saturday brought more work on the LR and a trip to Danbury Ice Arena for Bradley's 8th birthday party. I got out on the ice for a while and the kids were wild but contained. What a blast.
Reconnoitered back at the Johnson's to watch BJ open presents and relax with Gia and Ken. Got the tour of their back yard which is being prepped for the house addition. Much of the deck has been dismantled and trees have been cut down. The heavy machinery arrives Monday. Exciting!
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Elections
Last Sunday was more work on home theater. We’re not talking the $200K renovation that some of my colleagues have done. This is way modest and it’s more of a re-think of how to use components that we’ve had for a while.
The DVR has been the centerpiece for seven years. All TV watching starts there and I’m afraid to admit how many hours are spent in front of the tube. I’ve concluded that making one out of an existing PC will be practical on the day that manufacturers start selling CableCard based tuner cards to the public but not until then. In the mean time the choices are slim if one wants to watch and record HDTV via digital cable. In light of this realization we’ve dumped Windows MCE and have started using the Comcast DVR.
We’ve had components that produce and accept digital signals (S/PDIF & DVI) for 2 years and haven’t used the digital connections. I thought there would be better fidelity using digital but didn’t know how much. K and I are really impressed. The clarity and crispness of both speech and music is noticeably better. The transitions from soft to loud are instantaneous. The video is really striking with deep colors and great contrast. The only changes made were the cables. Everything else stayed the same. S/PDIF good, analog audio cables bad. DVI good, component video bad.
K went to a GVS fund raiser on Sunday and won the raffle, a spa package.
K and C spent Mon and Tue in Millville. C has a week off school and K wanted to run Millville errands. The car went to the mechanic to diagnose brake warning lights and some calls were made for glass and fence repair but the last quarter of every year is always crunch time for K’s work. This was no vacation for her.
I voted the straight Democratic ticket on Tuesday and am very gratified by the outcome. If Dems can end domestic wiretapping and give science precedence over politics in stem cell research and global warming it will not be too soon. I do think that a quick exit from Iraq signals the bad guys that their tactics work but to win this war would take a commitment of dollars and troops for which there is no political will. It is so tragic that we went there in the first place and that international alliances were trampled in the process.
Today was more home theater work. Making it all work together is a job for the Harmony remote control. This thing does an amazing job, not just in ease of control but ease of programming. To program it you connect it to your computer and then walk through some very intuitive browser based screens to create “activities” that integrate components to do a task like “listen to music” or “watch TV.” The Harmony 680 is a great front-end that makes the back-end engineering work. I have no interest in home theater unless there are only 1 or 2 buttons that make it work. Anything more is inconvenient enough to relegate it to seldom/never used status kinda like Roomba.
The DVR has been the centerpiece for seven years. All TV watching starts there and I’m afraid to admit how many hours are spent in front of the tube. I’ve concluded that making one out of an existing PC will be practical on the day that manufacturers start selling CableCard based tuner cards to the public but not until then. In the mean time the choices are slim if one wants to watch and record HDTV via digital cable. In light of this realization we’ve dumped Windows MCE and have started using the Comcast DVR.
We’ve had components that produce and accept digital signals (S/PDIF & DVI) for 2 years and haven’t used the digital connections. I thought there would be better fidelity using digital but didn’t know how much. K and I are really impressed. The clarity and crispness of both speech and music is noticeably better. The transitions from soft to loud are instantaneous. The video is really striking with deep colors and great contrast. The only changes made were the cables. Everything else stayed the same. S/PDIF good, analog audio cables bad. DVI good, component video bad.
K went to a GVS fund raiser on Sunday and won the raffle, a spa package.
K and C spent Mon and Tue in Millville. C has a week off school and K wanted to run Millville errands. The car went to the mechanic to diagnose brake warning lights and some calls were made for glass and fence repair but the last quarter of every year is always crunch time for K’s work. This was no vacation for her.
I voted the straight Democratic ticket on Tuesday and am very gratified by the outcome. If Dems can end domestic wiretapping and give science precedence over politics in stem cell research and global warming it will not be too soon. I do think that a quick exit from Iraq signals the bad guys that their tactics work but to win this war would take a commitment of dollars and troops for which there is no political will. It is so tragic that we went there in the first place and that international alliances were trampled in the process.
Today was more home theater work. Making it all work together is a job for the Harmony remote control. This thing does an amazing job, not just in ease of control but ease of programming. To program it you connect it to your computer and then walk through some very intuitive browser based screens to create “activities” that integrate components to do a task like “listen to music” or “watch TV.” The Harmony 680 is a great front-end that makes the back-end engineering work. I have no interest in home theater unless there are only 1 or 2 buttons that make it work. Anything more is inconvenient enough to relegate it to seldom/never used status kinda like Roomba.
Trick or Treat
The living room wall was dry Sunday and the first set of shelves for the electronics went up. It seems like there is more space in the room but things are still ugly. I promise a picture when everything is in its place.
Tuesday, Halloween brought trick or treat at the Milone’s once again. The evening was beautiful with temps close to 70. It was great to wander the neighborhood trailing after the kids with cigar in hand.
There was a less auspicious event that afternoon. Someone broke into the house in Millville. The alarm went off and the police were called. They found a broken pane in the window well under the master bedroom. Our thought is that the 3 trees that have fallen and broken through the fence are an invitation for people to cause mischief in the back yard.
Tuesday, Halloween brought trick or treat at the Milone’s once again. The evening was beautiful with temps close to 70. It was great to wander the neighborhood trailing after the kids with cigar in hand.
There was a less auspicious event that afternoon. Someone broke into the house in Millville. The alarm went off and the police were called. They found a broken pane in the window well under the master bedroom. Our thought is that the 3 trees that have fallen and broken through the fence are an invitation for people to cause mischief in the back yard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
