Dan Wilson’s Blog

In December I had a hard drive crash on Mission Control. This was double-y expected eventually since it was a RAID 0 configuration. I only lost a couple hours of work, since I had an auto-backup setup to a RAID 1 NAS I keep in the basement. Rebuilding was a pain, but such is life. To avoid such hassle in the future, I rebuilt with a change:

Intel Q6600 quad-core 2.40GHz 8M L2 Cache
Intel DX38BT motherboard
ATI Radeon 3870×2 1gb
WD Caviar 500 GB 1 GB SATA Hard Drive X 2 RAID 0 RAID 1 (1TB total)
750W Real Power Pro Psu
8GB DDR3 PC3-8500
Vista Home Premium 64

I do miss the speed.

I decided to get a new laptop with the bounties of Christmasukkah:

Sony VAIO VGN-FW520F
Intel Core 2 Duo P7450 (2.13 GHz)
4GB DDR2 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
500GB Hard Drive @ 5400 rpm
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (discrete)
16.4 inch Widescreen LCD (1600×900)
Blu-ray/CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD-DL/RW
Wifi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth
Webcam/mic, HDMI out

I have been busy with this lately, and been silent on the blog front for months. I will try to get back to it, as I have a lot of technology opinions and political rants I would like to get to, as well as some lighter Elise pictures to post. Stay tuned…

I am in the midst of a total video renaissance on my home machines. It all started with the addition of NAS to my home network infrastructure. I added two 1.5 TB drives in a RAID 1 (hooray for redundancy) for backup and video storage. This gives me virtually infinite HD video storage (or a few hundred hours if you want to get technical about it) and allows multiple machines to work with the raw HD recordings. This decentralization allows me to work with my video on either Mission Control using Sony Vegas Movie Studio for really complicated video editing tasks (like ‘Unstoppable‘), or my Mac Mini and iMovie for simple kid clips like ‘Tumbling‘.

The most painful, but essential, part of my video setup was getting the original camcorder software installed on Mission Control. When I first got the Handycam, the software for importing and organizing the AVCHD video from the camera was not compatible with 64-bit Vista. They have since fixed the issue, but installation required several components and reboots. With this new setup I hope to capture and produce more video. This also allows me to transfer back to the camera, and import all my old videos into iMovie, since best I can tell iMovie can’t just up and import raw AVCHD file dumps from a hard drive.

I also have found some great solutions for video on the go. I purchased Xilisoft’s iPod Video Converter, and can now take just about any video format and copy it to my iPhone for viewing on the bus. Even more impressive, however, is the TiVo Desktop Plus software. This software let’s me browse my TiVo recordings, and easily copy, convert, and add them to my iPhone in one shot. What’s really nice about this is I can time shift to skip commercials on the iPhone. Now I can get my Daily Show with John Stewart and Robot Chicken fix, and I don’t have to pay a dime in the iTunes store (though the TiVo software did set me back $24.95). Finally, for DVDs, I use CloneDVD Mobile to rip DVD’s for viewing on my iPhone. This is a great solution for plane travel, since you can just load up a handful of DVDs before a trip and you are all set with just the iPhone, a device that travels with you anyways. With this complete setup, I now have the ability to easily fill my iPhone with videos from file, TiVo, and DVD. I see my listening time for podcasts and audio books dropping sharply, except for while walking about.

I think I have reached near perfection and mastery of video, and am master of my own video domain.

In random order…

• Changeling – Just when you think you’ve seen what has to be the most difficult scene to watch in the movie, you’re surprised by more.
• Blindness – This movie goes from intrigue to social dystopia and back again, but the ride does get downright disturbing along the way. Had to watch twice, try to experience the different perspectives which gave two completely unique experiences.
• Lilya 4-Ever – A foreign film that is a story of blight, less blight, false promise, more blight, and tragedy upon tragedy. Many scenes are painful, and I could never watch again.
• Children of Men – Ultra violent, and the premise alone and its portrayal stuck with me a long time. Have watched it 3 times. Amazing cinematography.
• Boy A – Foreign (English) film that disturbs by what is shown, as well as what is not shown and left to the imagination.

Notable mention…

• Lord of War – It’s lack of authenticity at times precludes it from the list above, but still highly entertaining.
• Dancer in the Dark – Disliked the film, but set a high bar for tragedy. And Bjork!
• Hostel (1 and 2) – The gore and premise is frightening, although I wanted to leave the horror genre out of this.
• 28 Days (Weeks) Later – Great series, love the premise, pace, and production. Has its moments that make you wince both from situations and plot. Really hoping Danny Boyle comes back to direct the 3rd.

I will miss you, M.J.

Captain EO can be found here.

According to babies.

I created a game tape for Ryan, but thought I would share it with everyone here.

If you have no idea why this is funny, watch the video below the jump. (continue reading…)

NBA playoffs: Denver Nuggets looking “Lost” against Los Angeles Lakers – ESPN.

Very timely, especially for a fan of both like myself.

The season ends with a close loss.

L 4-6

Viet tallied all four goals. Chris was out with an injury, and will likely miss all of next season. There will be a one week bye before the next season starts.

I got my iPhone last December, leaving Verizon for ATT taking a small pro-rated contract cancellation fee. Word on the street is that there will be a new iPhone coming out in June. Now upgrading my iPhone in June would be costly, and it got me thinking what compelling hardware upgrades would possibly push me over the edge. Most of these are pie-in-the-sky:

• Higher megapixel camera, with zoom, auto-focus and shake reduction
• Video calling, implying front facing camera
• IR, for universal remote control
• 1080p pico projector
• Bluetooth headset dock. Think SD slot but for a small headset.
• Laser keyboard. This could be done with software alone assuming pico projector and well placed camera.
• Flashing red light a la Blackberry for new email notification
• A dedicated pause button, like a physical button not on the headphone wires.
• A thermometer, always nice to know the temperature inside/outside
• A laser pointer, pico projector could accomplish this.

I will try to make a software wish list post some time in the future.

Scored our first win of the season while matched up against another 0-fer team.

W 7-3

No idea on assists, and this is just the best guess for goals:

Viet(3), John(2), Heidi(2)

If anyone has a better guess drop it in the comments. The video I have for this game isn’t very highlighty, but I can share if anyone insists.

TechCrunch reported on a new and improved Google Profile pages. I made mine and it can be found here. Not anything more exciting than what I already have on my front page, but I guess I could see this being nice for people not willing to set up their own CMSs just to build a personal shrine to themselves.

After a bye week for Easter, Yahtzee faced the 1st place team. The result:

L 4-6

Goals: Chris(2), Viet, Cam’ron
Assists: Ryan, Viet, Cam’ron, Emily

Joe took a two minute penalty, which the other team converted into a goal. The other team also got a penalty kick, that they scored on. Chris left the game with an injured ankle, didn’t return, and is doubtful for next week.

Sunday’s game saw a loss, 0-7. Below are highlights of the goals (heh) and some of my saves.

After a bye week, we started our back-to-back weekend on Saturday with…

L 3-7

Chris got two goals, I assisted both as goalkeeper. John got the other goal, unassisted off of a steal. Moses returned in limited action.

I have completed and launched my project (codenamed: Rat Race) so I hope to get back to a more constant blogging regiment. The site is called Transitly, and can be found in the Liquid Mongoose blog, the Apple iPhone Directory, the iPhone Application List, and the Headway Blog Wiki.

Here it is, a week late:

Week 3
L 9-3
Goals: John (3)
Assists: Viet(2), Emily(1)

Ryan is complaining my stats aren’t correct in the comments. Ryan can start his own blog with more accurate stats, and I will gladly link to them.

Week 2 of the season looked a lot like week 1.

L 2-8

Again, we were down 1-3 at the half, and allowed more goals in the second than the first. Moses’ injury from last week left him out again, with Viet taking his slot. Viet would score the first goal, assisted by John. Josh would tally the second goal, assisted by Ryan against the other team’s backup goalie. Joe was active this game, and inadvertently injured the other team’s goalie when they got tied up in a scoring chance. Heidi was also active this game, after missing years with several ACL problems.