Connecticut’s Duty to Retreat

I recently stumbled across this interesting piece of information.  Throughout my life I’ve come across bits of information that SHOULD have been taught in school, but just isn’t.  A lot of what you learn in life, you have to learn completely on your own.  Most of what people “know” is myth passed on by [...]

Media Networking: Cheap Experiment Results

My initial attempt at Media networking is a big success!  The world of the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is now open to me.  Here is the formula you need to know:

TV Tuner Card (Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150) + Hauppauge MediaMVP + GB-PVR + Zap2It + Hard Drive + Network = WOW

Assuming you already have [...]

Media Networking: First Setback

Yesterday I received my new Home Media Network toys to try out.  So I go to power on my computer and… um… nothing.  The power supply is dead.  Ugh!  Half an hour later I’ve ordered a new power supply, but now I have to wait a week to try this stuff out.

In the [...]

Media Networking: Cheap Experiment

After some additional research, I’ve decided to conduct a (relatively) cheap experiment.  I’ve purchased the following:

Hauppauge PVR-150 TV Tuner card Hauppauge MediaMVP

I’m going to install the card in my current PC, install GB-PVR, hook up the MediaMVP to my current television and take a leap into the “modern world”.

I’ll let you [...]

Media Networking: Planning for the Future

We just did our first walk-through with the electrician the other day.  Our new addition is essentially all sealed up with new windows and such, but the walls are still just framed and wide-open.  So now we begin to think about lighting, electrics, and networking.

I have been convinced that since the walls are [...]

Our Dining Room: Yikes

To give you an example of what’s going on inside our house.  Here is a picture of our dining room.  We were living in it a week ago.

Click for big pic.

Networking: Wired or Wireless?

Should I bother installing CAT5 cabling throughout our new house addition?  What would you do?

I could spend the money, and mostly the effort, to install CAT5 cabling throughout our new addition… but is it really worth it?  We currently run a wireless networking and it is great.  We are using G, but with [...]

Progression of a House Addition

I wish I had taken even more photos, but here’s what I have… all taken from the same location.

View is as a slideshow!

House Progression – Nov-Dec 2006

[...]

Home Addition: Day 3 – Tree Removal

The tree guy came today.  Our lot is famous for its greenery… but we just can’t keep it due to the proximity of the new addition to the large trees in the yard.  So we had the tree guy remove a bunch of trees.  Check out the before and after photos.

(This was [...]

Home Addition: Exposing the Sewer

This is what that giant digger mentioned previously was able to do in a single day.

(that’s our sewer pipe.  It will be re-routed to go underneath the garage.  You are looking at the hole for the foundation of the garage)

[...]