Tuesday, October 29, 2002

Two update topics today

First off, Saturday was a milestone of sorts - our first attempt at feeding David with a spoon (the cereal is almost as gloppy as the bottle, so I wouldn't call it solids...). It went pretty well, though most of the food dribbled down his bib.

We're feeding him with a spoon every other day for the first week or so while he gets the hang of it. We'll step it up to daily sometime next week. For yesterday's feeding, Jane tried using a little bit of the banana mush to mix with the cereal (instead of water). It took us about half an hour and several washcloths to get him cleaned up. We will be waiting a while before we try that again...

On the technology front, I pretty much finished ripping my CD collection - it came out to around 7.5 GB. Fits the iPod nicely. I still haven't found a really good replacement for the earbuds that don't fit well (they sound great, right up until they fall out of my ear). I'm using a cheapo Philips earbud with an over-the-ear clip right now instead, but the sound isn't anywhere near as good. The search continues... I'm also looking for a FM modulator that I can interface to my Bravada's stero easily and hook the iPod up to in my car.

Finally, (also tech-related) my friend Rob eBayed some stuff for me, and I was able to sell enough junk that I can afford to replace my homenet server with a nice, fanless Mini-ITX form factor system. I'll just be buying the barebones machine (with the slimline CD-ROM, the one I want is about $250), adding RAM and a laptop HD (in a 3.5" adaptor), and moving my e-smith install over to it. It uses a Via Eden 533 processor - plenty of horsepower for low-volume file, web, and MP3 serving.

At this point I'm more interested in running systems that are low-power and/or silent than I am in raw speed.

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

OK - iThink it iRocks

After selling off a truly massive amount of my stuff at this weekend's MIT Flea (last of the season, see you in April!), I am now the proud owner of a 10GB iPod. It is ridiculously cool. Sound quality is excellent, it syncs up in seconds (it took about 5 minutes to load my 5GB MP3 collection the first time), and it's tiny, which is cool. I top off the battery as suggested each night and it lasts all day.

The only drawback of it is the earbud headphones. They sound great, and they're a very manageable size, but earbuds just don't fit me that great. If anyone has a line on a decent over-the-ear earpiece to replace them, I'd be much obliged.

I tried a set of Sony headphones that I got at Radio Shack yesterday, but the cord is made out of a funny mesh that pinches exposed skin - like the back of my neck. Yecch.


The other thing I have to do is wire up an interface to my car stereo - I'm going to buy a FM Modulator to interface with the stereo on my Olds. That'll be cool.

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Our latest trip

We spent the long weekend visiting Jane's family in New Jersey - David had a blast most of the weekend. He wasn't so happy on the way down, though - we had stopped for lunch at my parents' house in Connecticut, and hit the road to Jersey a little before 3.

Unfortunately, we hit horrible traffic, starting around Stamford and continuing onwards. It took an hour for us to make it down the Cross-Bronx Expressway (only about 4 miles or so), and the northern reaches of the New Jersey Turnpike were horrible - we didn't get out of the traffic until past Asbury Park on the Garden State Parkway. It took about 6 hours altogether to make a 3-hour drive, and David blew his gasket after about 4 and a half hours. So we had to stop to feed, change, and comfort him. Poor little guy.

Anyhow, the rest of the trip was fine and fun, and he enjoyed himself and charmed all of southern New Jersey. The trip back yesterday was easy, with hardly any traffic. All in all a success - I'll be posting pictures on my site from the trip in a day or so.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

I guessed wrong

Turns out David still can't quite flip over onto his tummy. I still think it's coming real soon.

I posted some new pictures of him up on his site last night, also.

Tuesday, October 01, 2002

Brush with greatness

I got an e-mail from my friend Rich last night - he and his wife Lynn were just in Hawaii for a vacation.

It seems on their way back, they stopped in LA, and flew the redeye home. On the plane with them was the immortal Terry Bollea! How cool was that? Anyhow, Terry let people take pictures with him and such - I'm eagerly awaiting the pics (assuming he took them) that Rich snapped.

Because for those of you who have no idea who Terry Bollea is, you might know him by his professional name:

Hulk Hogan.

Now that's cool, brother!

So close...

He's making a real effort at flipping over now. David can get past 90 degrees, but can't quite get the leg motion down to finish the flip. I figure that'll be within the week.

Of course at that point, the positioner is entirely obsolete and borderline dangerous, but it's served us well so far.