Slowly coming back online

Sorry I’ve been away so long. I’ve had a slew of issues.

First, I’ve had 5 freelance projects going at once (now down to 2.5) and I’ve been slammed at work, too, launching a couple new sites.

I’ve had internet problems at home. Issues with my laptop (Dell tech support replaced my LCD screen yesterday). I switched servers to host my websites – this was a planned to-do item, but it happened faster than I anticipated.

So now things have changed and settled down for the most part. Although it is fall, which means football, fantasy football, and a new season of TV. Plus I’m in a fall softball league. I’m just a player, not the manager, so I’m having a blast each week and Thursday can’t come fast enough.

I’m now a web hosting reseller, which means if you know anyone that wants to host a website, have them check with me first. I’m also a domain-name reseller and an SSL certificate reseller. So I can provide cheap alternatives for anyone looking to set up their own stuff.

I’ve moved all my photos to Flickr. They made some changes to their interface that was holding me back from getting a pro account before. Now I like them enough to pay the $25/year for unlimited picture space. I’m slowly uploading all my pictures (going back to 2000!) The link in the header now goes to my Flickr photos. Or click here.

I’ve got more videos and photos that I need to share, too. Those will gradually be getting online, too.

So it’s been a month of hetic craziness, but I think things are settling down once more.

Please stand by

We are experiencing technical difficulties.

I have no explanation for why my photo gallery just decided to stop working. And after this past week, I have a lot of photos to add. It’s gonna be a little bit before I can get it all back online.

I’m most likely going to switch to a Flickr account. I really like the changes they’ve recently made. Much more user friendly than it had been in the past.

Facebook

People are up in arms these days with the ever changing Facebook privacy policy. What I really don’t get is people assuming that putting anything on the internet, no matter what site, is going to be fully private. The bottom line is if you want something to be private, don’t put it anywhere on the internet.

If you’re worried about your music tastes, the books you’ve read, the pictures you’ve taken, the schools you went to being shared with everyone else on the internet – then don’t use those Facebook fields. Share that stuff with people in the privacy of your own home.

I’m not concerend myself. I’ve been posting pictures and blogging long before I had a facebook account. I’ve tried my best to keep info I don’t want made public off the internet. Really, if someone is that interested in me, I suppose I should be flattered.

The biggest change I did on Facebook was to remove my high school and graduation year. But that really didn’t have a lot to do with privacy. I didn’t want people I barely remember or really didn’t like from high school to try to friend me. You were mean to me then, why should we be friends now?

I’m such a nerd

That’s what Sara told me, but I can’t disagree.

I was finishing a bottle of wine the other day and thought how it was average, but would like to record that thought some way so I don’t end up buying the same one again.  I could write it down.  I could save the cork or peel the label off and save that.  But that seemed like too much work.  Taking a picture seemed the easiest, but it’s always a pain to take photos off my cameras and save them somewhere.

Then I had the thought: well Facebook and others allow for mobile uploads.  How can I do that for my online gallery?

I found a plugin that does just that.  Now I can take a picture with my phone and email it and it will upload to my gallery.  Then I can go in and put a star rating on that bottle.  It’s super easy and fast.  And I can do it from anywhere.

I thought at first of making this a private, hidden page, but then thought Sheryl would probably appreciate this too.  I’ll email you how to do it if you’re interested, sis.  I don’t really want to publicize the email address and start getting spam.

Sara still thinks it’s nerdy.

Car Inconveniences Remedied

Since last summer, I’ve had a few problems with my car.  The steering column cable went bad and my horn and cruise control died with it.  Got that fixed last fall (wow, cruise is really nice to have when your commute is mostly on the highway). I had bad wiper blades most of the winter – finally replaced them – simple to do, although I still need to unclog the passenger side sprayer.  And in the middle of the summer last year, my car stereo died and I spent nearly a year driving around with a battery-powered analog radio in the passenger seat.

That was fine, except it was too difficult to change the station while driving, so I kept it on 1 station most of the time.  Sometimes I forgot to turn the radio off and the batteries would be dead the next morning.  All in all, it was annoying, but manageable.  Now after a couple of freelance projects, I justified buying a new one.

I was very particular about the one I wanted.  It needed to play MP3s off a USB stick.  iPod support would be nice, but at least an Aux input so I could plug my phone and play the audio player from it.  CD player.  Easy to use radio-station preset buttons (believe it or not, that’s not as easy as you think).  And HD radio built in.  I didn’t want to pay an extra $100 just for HD.

I found this:

Dual isn’t a high end brand, but this thing had everything I wanted and more.  When I first looked at it, it was more than I wanted to spend, but by the time I was ready to buy, it was going for $20 less than the original price.  Then I found a coupon referrer code for an additional $20 off.  Plus with all the extras that Crutchfield threw in (wiring harness and dash-adapter kit) it was a great deal.  By the way, if you’re shopping anywhere online, it’s always a good idea to do a quick search of that site for an online coupon or referrer code.  There usually are always discounts to be found.

So now I can change stations again in my car.  And this thing has surpassed my expectations.  The HD is amazing.  It makes AM stations sound like FM ones.  And all my favorite FM stations have 2 HD channels.  For example, 93.1 XRT has an HD1 and HD2.  HD1 is the regular station in HD, but HD2 is alternate content from the same station.  So this essentially doubled the number of stations to listen to.  This radio gives me 18 FM presets and I was excited about that many, but now ran out quicker than expected.

Other cool features: playing music from a USB stick is great.  I have an 8GB stick and can fit almost my entire library on there and play it in the car.  With HD radio, you can “tag” music that comes in over the air, download it to an iPod and get an option to buy that song in iTunes later when you sync it to your PC.  This radio also has Bluetooth so I can do handsfree calling over the stereo system.  An incoming call will mute the radio and I can talk handsfree.  The Bluetooth also enables me to stream the music from my phone audio player to the radio without attaching any cords.

I wasn’t searching for one with Bluetooth features, but this worked out as a nice bonus.  All in all, I’m thrilled to have a real car stereo again.  It sure helps during the commute every day.

Car Stereo Update

It’s dead, Jim.

On the plus side, I’m an expert at taking apart car dashes now.  Even though I gave myself a pretty deep gash on my thumb in the process.  Well, there are no loose cords in the back.  It’s just lifeless.  I would think it’s the fuse, but the way it died, flickering on and off several times, makes me think that’s not it (although I will check, just to be sure).  It’s bizarre that a 5 year old radio just dies.  It’s a bummer that I have 6 CDs in the thing and will have to completely disassemble it to get them out (NO DISASSEMBLE!) [quick - name the movie!]

In the meantime, I tried this ghetto setup on the way to work today:

It did not meet my expectations.  There was a constant buzzing that overpowered the limited reception from the few stations I could get.  Is the inverter not providing a clean enough power signal?  Probably.  Is the radio really old? Yea.  Sigh.  The search for a suitable alternative continues.