Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m a hardware geek

February 12, 2004
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Well, actually, I’m just a geek in general. If it makes noise, has to do with moving lots of electrons around, or involves code I’m into it. And even though I’m mostly a software guy in terms of the things I create, I love learning and knowing about all kinds of hardware. There are a ton of really great resources on the web for someone like me. Here’s a sampling of my favorites: Tom’s Hardware …Continue reading →

Quick Reivew Creative Labs “SoundBlaster Wireless Music”

February 12, 2004
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I purchased a Creative Labs “SoundBlaster Wireless Music” (the product name is in quotes!) to play with.  $249 from Creative’s website. Creative’s website on this is here: http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=119&subcategory=121&product=9192 Summary: The SoundBlaster Wireless Music (which I will refer to as SBWM below) is an 802.11b (only) “digital audio receiver” or DAR that includes a bi-directional RF (not 802.11b based) remote control for UI. Time from opening the box to when I was playing music wirelessly, using the …Continue reading →

Quick Review of Linksys EFG120 Network Attached Storage/Print server

February 12, 2004
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I purchased a Linksys EFG120 Network Attached Storage/Print server device to play with. You can buy these online for $675 or so (e.g. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=56-124-001&depa=1). The Linksys page describing the product is at: http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=555. Summary: The EFG120 is a expandable 120GB NAS device with a built-in print server. It includes drive bays for 2 removable IDE hard drives; one is occupied by a Maxtor 120GB drive (6Y120L0). Installing a 2nd drive gives you either double the …Continue reading →

MCE Controller

February 11, 2004
Coding, Smart Home, Uncategorized
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In my post on XMLSerialization I mentioned that I was working on an app to enable control of MCE remotely over a TCP socket. I call this app MCE Controller and it’s basically done. Here’s what it does: Runs as a taskbar icon and allows you to view a log of what it’s doing by double clicking on the icon. Supports 45 commands. These include all MCE keyboard shortcuts (equivalent to all of the remote …Continue reading →

XMLSerialization

February 11, 2004
Coding, Uncategorized
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XMLSerialization absolutely rocks. I am blown away by the flexibility and richness it provides and how easy it is to use…once you get past the initial learning curve. I implemented it for a tool I’m writing that allows me to control Windows Media Center Edition remotely via a TCP based protocol. My home AV control system uses Crestron and I need to be able to have Crestron be able to control MCE. For various reasons …Continue reading →

Check constraints in SQL Server

November 25, 2003
Coding, Uncategorized
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This goes in the “here’s something I learned today” bucket. I was working on my ASP.NET based photo gallery sample/experiment and realized that I needed to ensure that the names of images I stored in the database couldn’t contain illegal filename characters. This is because I allow the user to specify a path like http://imgsample/P51.jpg and I use URL rewriting to translate this to http://imgsample/ViewImage.aspx?name=P51 or http://imgsample/ViewImage.aspx?ID=12&size=med. Not being a database guy (yet!) as I …Continue reading →

Ray Ozzie on WinFS & Longhorn

November 25, 2003
Coding, Leadership, Uncategorized
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One of my favorite industry visionaries, Ray Ozzie, has written a great note in his blog on WinFS titled “640KB ought to be enough for everyone“. Interesting read. He references Jim Gray (another of my geek heros) and points to an old but topical presentation on the trends in storage. Jim gets it.

Problem installing VS.NET 2003 on Windows Server 2003

November 17, 2003
Coding, Uncategorized
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I’m cranking away on really learning ASP.NET by building my own photo gallery component (primarily for my ’95 BMW 540 M-Sport (www.kindel.com/bmw) registry). Even though I know it won’t perform as well I implemented it by writing the images (full size, medium size, and thumbnails) to the SQL Server. Fun stuff. Anyway, I deployed it to another server and wanted to debug. Didn’t have VS.NET installed on that server so debugging won’t work. So in …Continue reading →

Polar Bears Rock

November 16, 2003
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My daughter’s 10 year-old soccer team (the Polar Bears) is playing for the championship tomorrow! Three weeks ago they started the tournament loosing their second game and going into the bottom bracket of 16 teams (it’s a double-elimination tourney). For the past three weeks they have played incredibly hard and after winning two games today have emerged out of the bottom bracket to face the only team left in the top bracket tomorrow. Because the …Continue reading →

Lego robot solves rubics cube

November 11, 2003
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Way cool: http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html

My Premise to Crestron Bridge is now ready for beta testing!

November 10, 2003
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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Head on over to http://www.kindel.com/Default.aspx?tabid=31 for details. The driver is now called the Kindel Systems Premise External Control Processor Bridge. I renamed it because it is actually completely generic and not specific to Crestron at all. It can be made to work with other external RS-232 attached home control processors that support a text based protocol and can be programmed.

My Home Control System Overview

November 7, 2003
Smart Home, Uncategorized
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This post describes the systems in the house we completed in August 2002. I get quite a few people asking me about what I did in the house, and instead of re-typing it yet another time, I’ve decided to write it down completely. [Updated October 5, 2011 with some new details.] The first thing I did before starting this project was to think about my goals. Below are the prioritized goals I used to guide …Continue reading →