Chicago-style pizza is pretty much impossible to find in Fort Collins, CO.  I've looked.  So, I decided to take a stab at it myself.

But I did manage to follow an Auntie Anne's copycat recipe (found here).  Naturally, it took three attempts before they could pass as edible.  I guess practice makes perfect.  The good news is that, unlike my cake, nothing ended up on the floor.


Pretzels are good - but they don't compare to the awesome new laptop I picked up.  An HP Pavilion - dv8.  Other than having some trouble finding a laptop bag thats it - it's been great so far.  It could use a second hard-drive, but I'll get to that later.

In other news, it looks like my newly found free-time will be coming to an end.  I just signed up for my first class at CSU.  Sweet.

It's far from perfect and I still need to refinish the tub and do some minor caulking....but *it's a bathroom*.  What more could you ask for? 

With this, the house is officially 'done'.  I'll probably throw up some nice before/after pictures when I get a chance.  Still, that's not to say there aren't still a handful of things that I'd like to do, it's just that my work on it will be limited to a few hours on the weekend.

Now what?  First, I'll be celebrating in the traditional fashion....with large quantities of alcohol and a commemorative laptop!  

After that, it looks like I'm going to pick up a Masters Degree from Colorado State University.  They've got an online program that sounds interesting.  That should start up in May - giving me plenty of time to kick back and relax....maybe I'll even get some programming done.

Lastly, be sure to check out Pixel Poppers.  It's awesome.

What the hell is a Gigawatt?

I don't know, but I do know my new power supply is working (Merry Christmas!).  The old one developed a nasty habit of turning off and not turning on again (unless I kicked it a few times....very frustrating).  I just hope this one out-lasts the old one.

This is all part of the 'get the house finished' effort that's been going on.  My current desk is a bit of an eye-sore and a new one that has an actual enclosure for the computer would prevent me from being able to kick it.  Now I've got a functional computer *and* a new computer desk.  Naturally, this makes me want to play on my computer.

I've returned to WoW.  I've got a new Warrior.

As much as I hate to admit this, I've played WoW since it was released; more than five years ago.  I've taken some time off here and there, but really, I have no excuse for not hitting the level cap.  I'm just addicted to starting over.  New class, new race, new spec, new server, new guild....it's like some sort of mental illness (but a fun one).  If I'm going to stick with my Warrior, I figured I needed something *else* to keep me focused.

I decided to write my own Addon.  Nothing fancy (yet) - it just alerts you when certain skills become available.  But it's been fun.

I've been working with .Net for so long now that it was a little....odd....to sit down and try to work with LUA.  I know what I want to do....but I don't know the syntax or the finer aspects of the language.  I also don't know any of the WoW specific APIs.  It'll be a good learning experience. 

If I ever get through my backlog of code samples/side-projects; I'll put the source up in the Code section of the website.

Now....I just need to finish the damn bathroom.  After that, I can spend lots of time play WoW.  I've just got a tiny hole to patch.  In the floor.

Sucks to be me :(

At first glance it *looks* great.  It certainly feels like it would be more comfortable in an entertainment center than on a computer desk.  What the photo doesn't show you is the very bright, very obnoxious, flashing blue LED that indicates network traffic.  I've yet to find a way to disable the flashing, short of a piece of tape.

The server software is as important, if not more so, than the player.  The included software from D-Link is horrible.  Playback quality was really bad and support for various movie formats was poor.  Fast forward and rewind simply didn't work.  Thankfully, there are alternatives like Tversity. 

Regardless of the server, there are still issues with the audio and video getting out of sync from one another...and the fast forward/rewind functionality is iffy-at-best.  Naturally, if you are willing to convert/reencode your media to a format that plays nice with the DSM-520, you'll be able to avoid most of that.  But *good luck*.  There is no software included to help you, nor is there much in the way of documentation on how to support that.

Setup wasn't too bad, but there is a good chance you'll need to change firewall settings on your PC and the settings on your router to allow the upnp traffic.  There was little to no documentation included with the player to help you do that.  Unless you are a fairly competent IT guy or gal, you might struggle with getting this thing to work at all.

Along those same lines, if you are going to be running this wirelessly, having a basic understanding of how to change wireless channels and ensure all of your devices are running at wireless-g speeds is going to be a pre-req to getting decent performance out of this sucker.

Overall, with some hacking/tweaking - you'll be able to watch your PC's media collection on any (one) TV you want with a DSM-520.  But, I really feel like this player falls short. 

When you hook this sucker up - you've got a device that can connect to a PC, the Internet, and a TV - all at the same time.  You've got all the hardware you need to do so much more.  But you can't.  For no good reason.  Would you like to surf the web on your TV?  Lots of people do.  Why can't you do it with the DSM-520?  No good reason, they just don't let you.  How about use the DSM-520 to remotely connect to your PC?  How cool would that be?  Really cool....but you can't do that.

Even things you really would expect a media player to be good at, fail to measure up.  Pictures are a pretty mainstream media type...maybe you'd like to show the in-laws some pictures of your trip to Greece.  You can do that with the DSM-520.  But what if you want to rotate a picture?  Or zoom in?  Or adjust the color? 

MS PAINT CAN EVEN DO THAT.....


 

You can't do *any* of those things.  That's pretty basic picture viewing functionality, if you ask me. 

In the end, I felt like the DSM-520 was awfully over-priced for what it does.  When you consider the PS3, which only costs an extra $100 dollars, includes a blu-ray player, has it's own internal hard-drive *and* plays PS3 games....the DSM-520 really doesn't measure up.

Who wants some?

As much as I'd love to do a site from scratch..maybe in Silverlight just to mix it up, I'll just be utilizing one of the countless online blogging type tools.  The one that I'm using is called Weebly.  I'd recommend it if you are looking to get up and running and not re-invent the blog/message board/comment system for the 10th million time.