thunkgeek.com

So I’ve dropped from the ranks of the Home Theater Elite now that my Phillips Pronto has given up the ghost. Some might say I had already dropped from the ranks given the fact that I was still using the original Pronto… but hey, I don’t really have $700 to blow on a remote control every time they come out with a new one, ok? In fact, in this case, I don’t even have the $300 it would take to get a refurbished Pronto TSU3000 and the charging dock, so I paid a visit to my friendly neighborhood Ars forum and found a recommendation for this little beauty. A learning remote for $32. Not bad. So I got it home and proceeded to code it for my components, soon discovering that they don’t have a code in the database for my Onkyo receiver. Gyarr!!!! Flummoxed, I began to have it learn some of the basic functions of the receiver, only to discover that you can’t learn to the power button. Gyarrr, again!!! I resorted to the forums at remotecentral.com and was surprised to discover that the thing is capable of programming via the JP1 header that is in the battery compartment. Evidently you can basically reprogam the entire remote, including every single key, shifted keys, macros, device names that display in the LCD. The whole shebang. All for $32. The cable to attach it to your PC can be made for $5 in parts or purchased pre-made for $15. Being the geek that I am, the cable is on its way.

It’s really hard to admit it… but isn’t step 1 just admitting that you have a problem? Well, I have a problem. I’ve had this problem for about 20 years. I remember very well the championship year. I even had a souvenir from that team… a gold pen in an embossed case. For a young geek in training, that’s a pretty major display of fanatacism. Since then the team has had its ups and downs, mostly ups other than the last two seasons, and I’ve been an armchair fan for most of that time. I’ve only ever attended two home games, and no away games, and they’re the only team I watch (I don’t have 4 hours chunks of time to watch other games), so I guess you could say I have a mildish form of the disease. However, I’ve come to actually understand and enjoy a contact spectator sport, which would really have surprised me as a teenager and I think still surprises my parents. I’m the only one in my family who seems to care very much. Of course, I went to BYU while none of my siblings did, and they’re the only division 1A school around here, so maybe it makes sense. My parents attended BYU before LaVell Edwards took the helm, so their lack of enthusiasm can be excused.

In any case, last night at close to the end of the first quarter the signal on our Dish Network flickered, and though I didn’t know it at the time, my wife and I were thinking the same thing: “It wouldn’t matter much if we don’t get to see the rest of this game… our team sucks.” Good thing the video came back. Last night was like watching BYU football in the glory days.. hard fighting defense and an offense that takes chances and makes the big plays. It was a thing of true beauty. We saw it for a few minutes, maybe a whole quarter, last week as well. Of course no one expected us to beat the #1 ranked team in the nation last week, but maybe we had a chance against #21 last night. And, indeed, after holding them to about half of what they’ve been averaging so far this year score wise, and putting up some impressive offensive efforts of our own, and above all, just looking like we were playing with a lot of heart, it all came down to a botched two point conversion by them and a field goal attempt by us in the last 30 seconds of play. Byu 27, BSU 28. But we have Matt Payne, by far the most accurate player on the team, one of the best kickers in the country, and the one man who had had an absolutely stellar night already. He put two enormous hits on the kick returner for the other team, even the commentators in the booth were singing his praises. Oddly enough, his kicking did seem a bit off through the game… he had kicked a 79 yard punt last week, but was only kicking 40-50 yarders in this game. In any case, he had already made two extra points and a field goal, so we weren’t too worried. He holds the third place all time scoring record for the school,.. not bad for a guy who makes his points only three at a time. They lined up, snapped the ball, and Payne kicked. I wish the cameras had been at the right angle to show the look on his face when he realized the kick was bad. The guy is so professional it must have been completely devastating to miss that simple kick. He was right in the middle of the field, 38 yards out… cake for Payne. Pain for Payne. Coach Crowton looked like he was going to cry. We turned off the TV and sat in silence for a few minutes then went to bed. Another loss, certainly, but we showed some serious chops last night against a highly ranked, usually high scoring team. We’ll get better, we’ll start to win again, I think. I haven’t had that much fun watching football since about 4 years ago when Crowton took over and we had a stellar season. Life is good, I guess, even though I have an illness.

No more pictures yet, but I built the control panel last night.

Radio Shack Parts List:

8×6x3″ Project Enclosure Cat.# 270-1809
Standard Phone Plug Cat.# 274-1539
Panel-Mount Jack Cat.# 274-252
50-Ft Shielded Audio Cable Cat.# 278-513
Mini SPST Momentary Switch Cat #: 275-1547
9V Snap Connectors Cat #: 270-325

I already had my arming switch courtesy of Thinkgeek, and none too soon evidently, because it’s out of stock there, though there are similar switches available in several places on the net. I’m using a little momentary switch from Radio Shack as the launch switch till I can find a prettier switch to use permanently. I decided to make a long cable attached to the solenoid on the launcher that would plug into the control box via a 1/4″ phono plug and jack. That way I could easily disconnect the box and wind up the cable. The only tricky part of this little project was figuring out how to wire my two switches so that the “arming” switch would have to be closed before the “launch” switch would be functional. As it turns out (not a big surprise) the arming switch has a contact that provides that function. I wired everything up before drilling to make sure it would work right. When it did, I proceeded to figure out how I wanted things mounted in the enclosure. I decided to put the two switches on the lid, arm on the left and launch on the right, and the jack for the cable going to the launcher on the right side panel. The enclosure comes with both an aluminum lid and a plastic one, which I decided to use since I will probably paint it eventually. Drilling the holes was easy enough, then I soldered the connectors together and put everything into the box. I need to find a way to mount the batteries inside the box, maybe velcro straps. Here’s a rough wiring diagram showing the two switches, two 9 volt batteries and the 1/4″ jack:

More pictures forthcoming once I’ve painted everything.

Well if the price reported today is right, I am not gonna be getting one anytime soon:

Konica Minolta Dynax 7D UK Prices

1,149.99 GBP = 2,043.92 USD and that is way too much for me to spend on a camera. Gharrr!! Of course, this is bleeding edge news, so maybe it’s innacurate?

I am really having a hard time keeping my composure over this. I am so excited for the Minolta digital SLR to come out. They’re saying it is based on the wildly successful and award winning Maxxum 7 SLR, which came out about two years ago and is supposedly the most flexible and usable film camera out there at the moment. If the digital model sits in the same seat on the bus as far as interface/usability/price range I am all over that little baby. Of course, Minolta is being extremely tight lipped so far about what this camera is gonna do. So far about all we know is that it will have a 6.1 megapixel CCD and the same antishake technology as in the A1/A2. The A2 is the current top of the line, sporting an 8 megapixel ccd and retails at $900. I am hoping with a little luck and taking into account the lower res CCD and that I’ll be able to get the Digital 7 without a lens maybe it will come in around the $600-$800 range. Pricey, but reachable. It’s not going to be their professional SLR, I expect, and I don’t need a pro digital camera. The current digital that I have is selling on eBay right now for around $150-$200, and my current film camera is going for between $100 and $150, so I oughta be able to get a good $300 toward my new camera just by selling my old ones. I’m giddy!!!

Erica called me before she came home from work and said
“Let’s take the kids to see Harry Potter 3 at the dollar
movies!” So here we are. 10:05pm. We must be nuts.

It is coming.

We just got back from having pizza and root beer. On the way home Marissa was blowing raspberries and loudly saying blabber blabber blabber (her favorite car trip pastime). Jonathan asked her to stop then offered this deft commentary: “She had too much to drink.”

I liked Volcano a little better than Dante’s Peak, and I thought Independence Day was pretty cool and even Daylight was ok. I’ve even seen all the classic 70s movies like Airport, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure. I woke up this morning with scenes from Twister in my head so I just had to go rent it and watch it this afternoon. I’m such a geek.

So I took the day off yesterday because Erica and the kiddos and I all wanted to hit the new pool in town, which looks kinda fun. Supposed to be the largest and most elaborate municipality owned pool in the state. Anyway, we were thinking we’d go around 11 or 12 and hang for a couple hours then Erica could go to work at 3 like usual. Little did we know that the pool now is only open from 3 to 8pm. Kinda put a dent in our plans. So we went to the zoo instead. Erica’s taking this afternoon off and we’ll hit the pool then.