Category: tech

Tivo Rocks

Can I just tell you how much I love my Tivo! I knew I’d like it but I just didn’t realize how much. The simplicity of it is amazing. No more clunky VCR/DVD settings that seems to drive most people nuts. You find, select, and click and your done. Don’t even get me started on how ‘way cool’ it is to pause live tv for a pit stop. I can see already why it has developed such a following. Being a total Stargate fan I set it record every occurance of the show and it does all the work for me. I just come home flick on the tube and get comfortable.

Yeah, I know I sound like a high school flunkie who just discovered caffeine. I can’t help it. We all get our petty enjoyments in life and I guess Tivo is mine.

Tivo

I broke down and bought a Tivo system online. It arrived today. I couldn’t help myself. It was on sale on their website. I just couldn’t resist. After rebate, I’ll only have spent $100.00 on the system so thats not a bad deal for the midgrade model.

Tivo

So far the setup has been pretty simple. The only downside is once you get it programmed you have to wait 6 hours for it to ‘process’ all the download data. Not a problem, as I’m off to work in a bit anyway.

Code Name – Crap!

Well, the good news is I’ve been working on the template for my site. The bad news, I’m no closer today than I was yesterday. I’ve come to the painful realization that php code doesn’t run like html. You can’t run it in snippets like html. There always has to be a reference line ‘from’ and ‘to’ so the rendering engine knows what to do next.

The code can be extremely simple in places and then overly complex in others. I think if I don’t have some sort of brainstorm soon, I’ll abandon WordPress for something simpler. WordPress itself is simple to use and maintain however, I hate the bland templates that come w/it.

My host offers a seperate databasing program w/my package and I think it would be simpler for me to just create a database w/my own custom fields from scratch.

New Camera

As promised, I finally broke down and bought a new digital camera. The ex got the last one in the split. I ended getting the Canon A510

Canon A510

which is not their latest and greatest but that just means I got a better deal on it.

Not being a true ‘are-teest’, I don’t need tons of bells and whistles for the advanced photographer. I just need a decent pixel size, ability to transfer/print, and size. All of which is provided by this model. So now I have no excuse not to have more pics for the blog. I get so jealous of homer, Jimbo and some of my other blogroller’s who always have such great pics on their sites.

Oh crap! I forgot to enroll in the extended warranty. I’m off to the website to get it!

I splurged and got it 2nd day delivery so I’m hoping it ships by Monday. I’d be surprised if it showed up any sooner than that.

Up & Coming

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong w/the flash file I’ve been working on. I won’t bore you w/the details but I couldn’t get the dame thing to work. Today, I finally got it, so to speak. I diddled around enough w/it to make it work for me but no way I’m anywhere close enough to building one from scratch.

Check out a preview. You likes? *Note – you need flash player installed for it to work. It is loading across the entire page so it tends to look a bit grainy. Never fear the final product will look sweet!*

OH! I almost forgot. Check the nifty little Moby icon that loads next to the link in the address bar. (and/or on the tab if you are using firefox/netscape)

The New Look in Progress

Well folks, the sad truth is the problem was on my end not the server. Silly me, not having any experience w/PHP functionality. I was changing the database descriptions not the spot where I was to insert MY info. God, I was so embarrassed. lol

Anyway, I’m still fiddling my way thru this so hang in there. The new url just during the test phase is at…

http://www.mobius.name/blog/

Finally!

The server switch has been completed so now I’m just waiting for my domain(s) to be re-pointed to the new servers. blah blah blah.

What this means is my site will probably go down sometime during the day tomorrow. I’ll get it back up as soon as possible.

@#$%! Where is Moby?

I just found out I have to switch my domain from a MS server to a Linux server. Apparently, the last rep I talked to at 1and1 didn’t really know his biz because he gave me the wrong info. What this means to you, my dear readers, is my blog will temporarily disappear sometime between today and Wednesday.

Fear not, I will be back. I just may not be reachable for a few days. My entire domain will be affected. I could switch back to the old blogspot address but thats pointless.

I’m doing a backup of the entire domain now. I have to reload everything! I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much. 1and1 has been superb so far. No one is perfect right?

I also found a fantastic new template to use too. Totally different from the one I have now. Slick as owlshit if you ask me. *g* It probably won’t be up until late this week or early next. I want to get the domain back up and running first, then get wordpress intergrated. *crossed fingers* If all goes well, I’ll update the template last. Well that is the goal anyway.

Am I Popular?

Ok, so trying to pull myself out of the funk I’m in, I’ve been trying to be a bit proactive and get my act together. *stand back folks, this might be dangerous*

I’ve been whining for months now about folding my blog into my domain. Well, I moved it but am still doing updates thru blogger.com. Today, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade my hosting package so I can utilize WordPress. While doing so, I checked my site stats and got a big surprise. There are a lot more people linking to me than I thought. I try to nab’em all thru Technorian but apparently I ain’t even close. I found 60 unique links from other blogs and search engines in just the past 5 days. I have no idea if that means I’m popular or not but it made for a good headline don’t ya think?

I’m new to WordPress so if the blog goes bonkers over the coming days fear not, its just me tinkering w/stuff. I plan on making a backup just in case I really screw it up good. The template will be changing as well. I really like this one but it doesn’t utilize enough of the page to squeeze in side bars. I haven’t found a new one yet so any references are appreciated.

I’d also love some feedback on blacklists that work w/wordpress for blocking sp@mmers. Blogger does a fine job keeping them at bay but when I’m on my own that will be another story altogether. I’d love one that allows me to approve posts from other bloggers and remembers them the next time so I don’t have to continually approve them over and over.

Any suggestions?